American Ideals

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MPVIiWr 1M« BY COLUEN'S WEEKLY

/X«> *J '9 g<^-.e^iv

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Twenty-sixth President of the United State t

St»rt •taia* : m ntid It jONh t w**:"" 'r* '-( •> it homi '^mue** •* mb

statesman Ebition

AMERICAN IDEALS

WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY
GBN. FRANCIS VINTON GREENE

ADMINISTRATION— CIVIL SERVICE

Br
THEODORE ROOSEVELT

®

PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OP THE
PRESIDENT THROOOH SPECIAL ▲RRAMOEM ENT
WITH THE CENTURY CO., MESSRS. CHARLES
SCRIBNER'S SONS, AND Q, P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW TORK

THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY

MCMIV

-rh±s one

|ll

bu 1 w-uv/W- iu / rt

CorntfGST 1897
Bt G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS

This edition m published under arrangement with
G. P. Putnam's Sons, of New York and London.

CONTENTS

AMERICAN IDEALS

I. — ^American Ideals 17

II. — Trub Americanism 31

III.-— The Manly Virtues and Practical Politics 51

IV. — The College Graduate and Public Life . . 63

V. — Phases of State Legislation 78

VI. — Machine Politics in New York City . . . 118

VII. — The Vice- Presidency and the Campaign of

1896 149

ADMINISTRATION— CIVIL SERVICE

I. — Six Years of Civil Service Reform . . . 177

II. — Administering the New York Police Force 203

III. — How Not to Help our Poorer Brother . 232

IV.— The Monroe Doctrine 246

V. — Washington's Forgotten Maxim 265

VI. — National Life and Character 289

VII.^^ociAL Evolution 321

VIII. — The Law of Civilization and Decay . . . 347

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

THE publishers of Theodore Roosevelt's books
have decided to publish a popular edition of
them during the Presidential campaign, and have
asked me to write a few words of introduction.
Few names are more widely known at the present
moment than that of Theodore Roosevelt, so that
in one sense any introduction is superfluous. But
in this sense he is known chiefly as the "Rough
Rider" of the Santiago campaign; whereas those
who read these books will see that his experience
as a volunteer officer in the war with Spain is only
one incident in a life which has been singularly
varied in thought and accomplishment and useful
in many fields.

Roosevelt was bom in New York City, October
27, 1858. On his father's side he is descended from
a Dutch emigrant of the seventeenth century, and
the intermediate generations have been prudent,
hard-working, successful merchants, prominent at
all times in the commercial and social life of New
York. His father's mother was from Pennsyl-
vania, of Irish stock. His own mother was from
Georgia, a daughter of James Dunwoodie Bullock,
I Vol. I.

2 Bwfgfzphiad Sketch

ji»»r1 (mi4 Ij«o p^rornmerrt m pdvB:: life ^ tfce SicrfL
Thtrtnn \m dtiMbrxyl, Rior/iercfe was fn sadi lad
fKdfth that it wa.<* *>abtml ft he wo€iI<f cvtr gro^
t«» fwaihorAf and his rol«5t strength and exnraor-
4itfAry csipsnaiy U/z ^kty^iokl enrhxr^not were not ac-
qmr^ trntiJ after hi^ oatfioor life in the West. He
wa* Hucated at private sdiools in Xew York City,
whence he went to Harvard UniversitT in 1876,
f(f^lwiiinfi in the tistial coarse in 1880. His tastes
were for literary work, but tiie very year after
leaving college he was elected to the Legislature
a* a refwesentative of one of the City Assembly
dwtrict^; and in the same fashion that has since
characterized him, he plunged at once into the thick
of the fight as an ardent reformer, particularly with
reference to legislation affecting New York City.
His youth anrl lack of experience were more than
counterbalanced l;y his earnestness and aggressive
energy, so that he speedily became a power which
had to be recognized. He was the leader of his
party while it was in the minority, and when it
was in the majority he was Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Cities. He served three terms in the
T^gisliiture, and during that time introduced and
carried through more important city legislation than
was ever brought al)0Ut by any one Assemblyman.
Tt was all directed by one central purpose, namely,
to put nn end to boards and commissions with their
opportunities for "trades" and "deals," to restrict
the powers of the Board of Aldermen, who were

Biographical Sketch 3

notoriously corrupt, and to concentrate responsi-
bility in the Mayor and single heads of departments,
who could be held accountable; in other words, to
effect the transformation from what was suitable
for town-meeting government in New England or
New Holland one or two centuries ago to what was
required for the complicated cosmopolitan metropo-
lis of the nineteenth century.

While in the Legislature he still found time for
literary work, and, in 1882, wrote The Naval War
of i8i2y which told the story of our glorious suc-
cesses on the sea; it was written at a period when
our merchant marine was in decadence, our navy at
its lowest ebb, and public interest in the subject al-
most wholly lost. It was not without its effect on
the rebuilding of the navy which began two years
later, which fortunately for us had already reached
such a splendid development before 1898, and which
is still in progress.

In 1884, severe domestic affliction and ill-healtH
caused Roosevelt to abandon his work in New York
and go to Wyoming. He invested a considerable
part of what he inherited from his father in a cattle
ranch, and intended and expected to remain in the
West for many years. The wild, outdoor life fas-
cinated him, and it brought him health and strength ;
in spite of defective eyesight he became a good shot,
and was particularly fond of hunting big game —
where the other fellow had an even chance; and the
peculiar characteristics of the cowboy, since called
cow-puncher, appealed alike to his sense of humor

4 Biogntftaad Stack

and im lore ^A hh: p&tj. ASrer be r e e c rj Irre

in ^ EaifC,. h» foorfeaesf lot Trrrrr^g- tijofc 5=i :rj
the ft!ik» fK iwxcGCairK zrx ?i£f Tacstrajc ctkj year:
mA tnf kmnia^ czperkrxxs sre d^gnrmigh r <:£&-
§mbed in two rofeoncs, HuKtmg Trifi of a Rumrk-
man ^18^5; ar^d TA^ WUdenf^zi Humter ^r^^j).
55«iator Wr/IcrjCt- in fefs spcem nfitffjing R-josercLt
of hi ^ tiotnin:3ition for tfac Vkc-PrcsEdcaqr. phyfaTlT
TtxtrrtA to these btmtii^ stories with the rcmafk
that ^^iK/ir that too ate ocsr czn^d2te tfaer will all
be bdie^'ed''; hot any one who enjoys or adnrires
manly sport — sudi as requires courage, endtirance,
hardship^ and a contest with animals whidi are su-
perior to man in strengtfi or qieed — will take the
stories on faith, rqg[ardless of political belief.

Cattle raising did not prove financially success-
ful, though Roosevelt kept his ranch until 1896.
He returned to New York in 1886, married again,
and once more plunged into political life. A Mayor
of New York was to be elected that year. Abram
S. Hewitt had received the nomination from Tam-
many Hall and other Democrats; Henry George
was the candidate of the Socialists ; the Republican
party decided to put forward a candidate, and se-
Icctcrl Roosevelt. There was but little chance of his
election, l>ut he made a most energetic canvass,
speaking in three or four places every night during
the latter part of the campaign. Hewitt was elected,
George l)eing second, and Roosevelt third, with a
vote of alx)iit 60,000 out of a total of 220,000.

The next three years were devoted almost wholly

Biographical Sketch 5

to literary and historical work. The upbuilding
of the great West is one of the great world move-
ments^ in some respects the most important fact of
the century now closing. Roosevelt b^^ writing
the story of it in 1886, under the title of The Win-
ning of the West; the first two volumes appearing
in 1889, the third in 1894, and the fourth in 1896.
Each volume describes a distinct period and is com-
plete in itself. The last carried the story through
the Louisiana Purchase. The history has been in-
terrupted by the Spanish War and the engrossing
duties of the office of Governor of New York; but
it is hoped that the leisure hours of a Vice-President
and the facilities of the libraries in Washington will
afford the time and opportunity for its completion.
Readers of the four volumes already published will
understand the reasons why Roosevelt has such an
extraordinary hold upon the sentiment and sjrm-
pathy of the Western people. They will see that,
although bom and bred in the great city of the East,
he realizes that the bone and sinew of this country,
its strength and the sources of its wealth, are in the
wide valley between the AUeghanies and the Rocky
Mountains. Its origin and growth have been stud-
ied by him in every detail; he has participated
enough in its life thoroughly to understand it, and
he is in close touch and accord with its aspirations
for the future.

In 1889, Roosevelt was appointed by President
Harrison a member of the Civil Service Commis-
sion at Washington and soon became its president,

6 Biographical Sketch

retaining that office until the spring of 1895. A
thorough believer in the principle of merit instead
of favor in selecting and promoting appointees for
the thousands of minor offices in the public service,
he entered with his usual combativeness upon the
task of enforcing the law for carrying this principle
into effect. For six years, under his guidance,
this was a fighting commission, not hesitating to
grapple with any Cabinet officer or member of
Congress, irrespective of their party affiliations, who
tried to nullify or repeal the law. The result was
the extension of the Civil Service rules to more than
50,000 government employees who were not pro-
tected by them in 1889.

In 1894 there was a union of all parties in New
York City who were opposed to Tammany Hall,
and W. L. Strong was elected Mayor. He invited
Roosevelt to join his administration as head of cme
of the departments; first, as head of the Street-
Cleaning Department, which he declined for lack
of special knowledge; and second, as head of the
Police Department, which he accepted. Some of his
friends in Washington urged him not to accept the
place on the ground that it was beneath his dignity;
others urged him with even more vehemence to
accept it, partly because of the good work he could
do for New York in. putting this department on an
honest basis, and partly because of the opportunity
it would afford him of getting on the firing-line in
the contest for good government in cities. He held
this office ior two years, and though subjected to

Biographical Sketch 7

much criticism from certain quarters for enforcing
the liquor-license law, yet it can be said, in a word,
that during his administration he placed the depart-
ment on a thoroughly efficient basis, broke up the
organized system of blackmail which had hitherto
prevailed in the department, and gained the affec-
tionate admiration of the members of the force to
an extent which has never been equaled by any
Police Commissioner before or since.

During the three years from 1894 to 1897 he
wrote the greater part of the essays on political sub-
jects which are printed in the volumes of American
Ideals. In these will be found his whole theory of
politics, based on honesty, courage, never-ending
hard work, and fair play ; and coupled with these a
certain measure of expediency which without sac-
rificing principle strives to get things done, and to
accept the second best if what he considers the first
best is not attainable ; realizing that in a government
of universal suffrage many minds must be con-
sulted and a majority of them brought to the same
conclusion before anything can be accomplished.

When President McKinley took office in 1897,
he offered Roosevelt the position of Assistant Secre-
tary of the Navy, and it was promptly accepted.
He had been only a few months in office before he
reached certain conclusions, to wit : that a war with
Spain was inevitable, that it was desirable, and
that he should take an active part in it. He did
ever3rthing that lay in his power during the nine
months preceding April, 1898, to see that the Navy

8 Biographical Sketch

was prq)ared for the struggle, and how well he suc-
ceeded the officers of Dewey's and Sampson's fleets
and the Bureau Chiefs in the Navy Department are
always abundantly able and willing to testify to.
As war drew near he b^an to make his plans for
his own part in it. He at first endeavored to ob-
tain a commission in one of the National Guard regi-
ments in New York which he felt sure would volun-
teer for the war, but this for various reasons being
not practicable, he determined to raise a regiment
of volunteer cavalry in the West. His friends in
Washington did everything to dissuade him from
this project : his wife was ill, his little children were
dependent on him, and it was urged that he could
render far more valuable service in the Navy De-
partment than in the field. But his purpose was in-
flexible. On account of his lack of experience in
technical military details he asked his friend, Dr.
Leonard Wood, an army surgeon who had had
much experience in Indian fighting in Arizona, to
take the position of Colonel, he taking that of Lieu-
tenant-Colonel. He persuaded the President to au-
thorize the raising of the ist U. S. Volunteer Cav-
alry on this basis. In about thirty days from the
issuing of this authority the regiment was recruited,
uniformed, drilled, armed, equipped, and transported
to Tampa, Florida, ready for duty. The story of
the Rough Riders is a household word from Maine
to Arizona and from Oregon to Florida. As told
by Roosevelt himself, it has been read by millions
of readers. It is the most picturesque story in our

Biographical Sketch 9

military annals. In the first skirmish, after land-
ing on Cuban soil, Wood was promoted to the rank
of Brigadier-General, and Roosevelt was left in
command of the regiment. It owed its origin to
him, and he was associated with it from start to
finish.

In September, 1898, the Republican State Con-
vention met to nominate a candidate for Governor
of New York. Roosevelt was then with his regi-
ment at Montauk Point, about to be mustered out of
service. He was nominated, and at once entered
upon a vigorous campaign. The party was then
suffering from criticism on account of its alleged
mismanagement of the canals, and in the opinion
of the best judges any other candidate would have
been defeated. Roosevelt was elected by about
20,000 majority.

His election was doubtless due to his services
in the war with Spain, but these contributed little
or nothing to his qualifications for the office. These
were found in his experience in the State Legisla-
ture, in the Civil Service Commission, the Police
Department, and the Navy Department, an experi-
ence which had given him an intimate knowledge
of the practical working of municipal. State, and
national Governments ; and, above all, to his fearless
honesty and tireless energy in devotion to sound
principles of administration. During his two years of
office, as Governor, he has set a standard which the
people of New York will not soon allow to be low-
ered. He has put through a first-class Civil Service

lo Biographical Sketch

law, he has framed and carried through legislation
in regard to the difficult question of taxation, based
on a new prinicple which is perfectly equitable, is
particularly suited to modem conditions, and when
modified in details to such extent as experience shall
demonstrate to be necessary will be accepted by all ;
he has honestly and economically administered the
canals, and has caused the canal question to be care-
fully studied so as to bring out all the essential facts
upon which its solution must be based ; he has reso-
lutely refused to appoint any unfit man to office,
although usually ready to accept a suitable man when
recommended by the Republican organization, which
includes the greater part of the voters in the party;
he has appointed commissions to study the educa-
tional system, the tenement-house question, and a
revision of the Charter of the great City of New
York. His appointees, from top to bottom, have
been of the very highest type; from the foundation
of the State there have been no higher.

Many of his measures are in a half-finished con-
dition. The Republicans of New York would, be-
yond question, have renominated and re-elected him
to carry them to completion. But at this stage the
Republicans of the United States with singular una-
nimity have called him away from New York,
against his personal wishes and judgment, to take
part in national affairs and to aid President McKin-
ley in carrying out those policies which, during the
last four years, have brought such prosperity at
home and such greatness abroad. He has yielded

Biographical Sketch ii

his judgment to theirs, and cheerfully accepted the
call.

He has six children — Alice Lee, Theodore, Ker-
mit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bullock, and Quentin.
His home is at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long
Island.

In these pages the people of this land can read
the thoughts that have been spun out by his brain
during the last eighteen years, and can see what
manner of man he is. They believe him to be hon-
est, fearless, straightforward, a tireless worker, ex-
perienced in the administration of city, State, and
national affairs, a careful student and writer of his
country's history, an American in every fibre, a man
who holds his life at his country''s service whenever
a war is on during his lifetime. In reading these
books their belief in him will be justified and con-
firmed.

Francis V. Greene

New York, July i6, igoo.

TO

HENRY CABOT LODGE

Octoter. iSqrf

PREFACE

IT is not difficult to be virtuous in a clois-
tered and negative way. Neither is it
difficult to succeed, after a fashion, in active
life, if one is content to disregard the consid-
erations which bind honorable and upright
men. But it is by no means easy to combine
honesty and efficiency; and yet it is absolutely
necessary, in order to do any work really
worth doing. It is not hard, while sitting in
one's study, to devise admirable plans for the
betterment of politics and of social condi-
tions; but in practice it too often proves very
hard to make any such plan work at all, no
matter how imperfectly. Yet the eflfort must
continually be made, under penalty of con-
stant retrogression in our political life.

No one quality or one virtue is enough to
ensure success; vigor, honesty, common-sense,
— all are needed. The practical man is mere-
ly rendered more noxious by his practical
ability if he employs it wrongly, whether from

(15)

1 6 Preface

ignorance or from lack of morality; while the
doctrinaire, the man of theories, whether writ-
ten or spoken, is useless if he can not also act.

These essays are written on behalf of the
many men who do take an actual part in try-
ing practically to bring about the conditions
for which we somewhat vaguely hope; on be-
half of the under-officers in that army which,
with much stumbling, halting, and slipping,
many mistakes and shortcomings, and many
painful failures, does, nevertheless, through
weary strife, accomplish something toward
raising the standard of public life.

We feel that the doer is better than the
critic and that the man who strives stands far
above the man who stands aloof, whether he
thus stands aloof because of pessimism or be-
cause of sheer weakness. To borrow a simile
from the football field, we believe that men
must play fair, but that there must be no shirk-
ing, and that success can only come to the
player who "hits the line hard."

Theodore Roosevelt

Sagamore Hill,
October^ i8gy

AMERICAN IDEALS*

IN his noteworthy book on "National Life and
Character," Mr. Pearson says: "The country-
men of Chatham and Wellington, of Washington
and Lincoln, in short the citizens of every historic
state, are richer by great deeds that have formed
the national character, by winged words that have
passed into current speech, by the examples of lives
and labors consecrated to the service of the com-
monwealth."* In other words, every great nation
owes to the men whose lives have formed part of its
greatness not merely the material effect of what they
did, not merely the laws they placed upon the statute
bodes or the victories they won over armed foes, but
also the immense but inddinable moral influence
produced by their deeds and words themselves upon
the national character. It would be difficult to ex-
aggerate the material effects of the careers of Wash-
ington and of Lincoln upon the United States.
Without Washington we should probably never have
won our independence of the British crown, and we
should almost certainly have failed to become a great
nation, remaining instead a cluster of jangling lit-

* The Forum, February, 1895.

(17)

1 8 American Ideals

tie communities, drifting toward the type of gov-
ernment prevalent in Spanish America. Without
Lincoln we might perhaps have failed to keep the
political unity we had won; and even if, as is pos-
sible, we had kept it, both the struggle by which
it was kept and the results of this struggle would
have been so different that the effect upon our na-
tional history could not have failed to be profound
Yet the nation's debt to these men is not confined
to what it owes them for its material well-being, in-
calculable though this debt is. Beyond the fact that
we are an independent and united people, with half a
continent as our heritage, lies the fact that every
American is richer by the heritage of the noble deeds
and noble words of Washington and of Lincoln.
Each of us who reads the Gettysburg speech or the
second inaugural address of the greatest American
of the nineteenth century, or who studies the long
campaigns and lofty statesmanship of that other
American who was even greater, can not but feel
within him that lift toward things higher and nobler
which can never be bestowed by the enjoyment of
mere material prosperity.

It is not only the country which these men helped
to make and helped to save that is ours by inheri-
tance; we inherit also all that is best and highest in
their characters and in their lives. We inherit from
Lincoln and from the might of Lincoln's generation
not merely the freedom of those who once were
slaves ; for we inherit also the fact of the freeing of
them; we inherit the glory and the honor and the

American Ideals 19

wonder of the deed that was done, no less than die
actual results of the deed when done. The bells that
rang at the passage of the Emancipation Proclama-
tion still ring in ^Vhittier's ode; and as men think
over the real nature of the triumph then scored for
humankind their hearts shall ever throb as they can
not over the greatest industrial success or over any
victory won at a less cost than ours.

The captains and the armies who, after long years
of dreary campaigning and bloody, stubborn fighting,
brought to a close the Ciril War have likewise left us
even more than a reunited realm. The material ef-
fect of what they did is shown in the fact that the
same flag flies from the Great Lakes to the Rio
Grande, and all the people of the United States are
richer because they are one people and not many,
because they belong to one great nation and not to
a contemptible knot of struggling nationalities. But
besides this, besides the material results of the Civil
War, we are all. North and South, incalculably richer
for its memories. We are the richer for each grim
campaign, for each hard-fought battle. We are the
richer for valor displayed alike by those who fought
so valiantly for the right and by those who, no less
valiantly, fought for what they deemed the right
We have in us nobler capacities for what is great
and good because of the infinite woe and suflFering,
and because of the splendid tdtimate triumph.

In the same way that we are the better for the
deeds of our mighty men who have served the na-
tion well, so we are the worse for the deeds and the

20 American Ideals

words of those who have striven to bring evil on
the land. Most fortunately we have been free from
the peril of the most dangerous of all examples.
We have not had to fight the influence exerted
over the minds of eager and ambitious men by the
career of the military adventurer who heads some
successful revolutionary or separatist movement.
No man works such incalculable woe to a free coun-
try as he who teaches yoimg men that one of the
paths to glory, renown, and temporal success lies
along the line of armed resistance to the Govern-
ment, of its attempted overthrow.

Yet if we are free from the peril of this example,
there are other perils from which we are not free.
All through our career we have had to war against
a tendency to regard, in the individual and the
nation alike, as most important, things that are of
comparatively little importance. We rightfully value
success, but sometimes we overvalue it, for we tend
to forget that success may be obtained by means
which should make it abhorred and despised by every
honorable man. One section of the community dei-
fies as "smartness" the kind of trickery which en-
ables a man without conscience to succeed in the
financial or political world. Another section of the
community deifies violent homicidal lawlessness. If
ever our people as a whole adopt these views, then we
shall have proved that we are unworthy of the heri-
tage our forefathers left us ; and our country will go
down in ruin.

The people that do harm in the end are not th«

American Ideals 21

wrong-doers whom all execrate; they are the men
who do not do quite as much wrong, but who are
applauded instead of being execrated. The career
of Benedict Arnold has done us no harm as a nation
because of the imiversal horror it inspired. The men
who have done us harm are those who have advo-
cated disunion, but have done it so that they have
been enabled to keep their political position; who
have advocated repudiation of debts, or other finan-
cial dishonesty, but have kept their standing in the
community; who preach the doctrines of anarchy,
but refrain from action that will bring them within
the pale of the law; for these men lead thousands
astray by the fact that they go unpimished or even
are rewarded for their misdeeds.

It is unhappily true that we inherit the evil as
well as the good done by those who have gone before
us, and in the one case as in the other the influence
extends far beyond the mere material effects. The
foes of order harm quite as much by example as by
what they actually accomplish. So it is with the
equally dangerous criminals of the wealthy classes.
The conscienceless stock speculator who acquires
wealth by swindling his fellows, by debauching
judges and corrupting legislatures, and who ends his
days with the reputation of being among the richest
men in America, exerts over the minds of the rising
generation an influence worse than that of the aver-
age murderer or bandit, because his career is even
more dazzling in its success, and even more dan-
gerous in its effects upon the commimity. Any one

22 American Ideals

who reads the essays of Charles Francis Adams and
Henry Adams, entitled "A Chapter of Erie/' and
**The Gold Conspiracy in New Yoric," will read
aboctt the doings of men whose influence for evil
upon the community is more potent than tiiat of any
band of anarchists or train robbers.

There are other members of our mercantile com-
munity who, being perfectly honest themselves,
nevertheless do almost as much damage as the dis-
honest The professional labor agitator, with all
his reckless incendiarism of speech, can do no more
harm than the narrow, hard, selfish merchant or
manufacturer who deliberately sets himself to keep
the laborers he employs in a condition of dependence
which will render them helpless to combine against
him ; and every such merchant or manufacturer who
rises to sufikient eminence leaves the record of his
name and deeds as a l^^acy of evil to all who come
after him.

But of course the worst foes of America are the
foes to that orderly liberty without which our Re-
public must speedily perish. The reckless labor agi-
tator who arouses the mob to riot and bloodshed is
in the last analysis the most dangerous of the woric-
ingman's enemies. This man is a real peril ; and so
is his sympathizer, the legislator, who to catch votes
denoimces the judiciary and the military because
they put down mobs. We Americans have, on the
whole, a right to be optimists; but it is mere folly
to blind ourselves to the fact that there are some
Uack clouds on the horizon of our future.

American Ideals 23

During the summer of 1894, every American capa-
ble of thinking must at times have pondered very
gravely over certain features of the national char-
acter which were brought into unpleasant promi-
nence by the course of events. The demagogue, in
all his forms, is as characteristic an evil of a free
society as the courtier is of a despotism; and
the attitude of many of our public men at the
time of the great strike in July, 1894, was such as
to call down on their heads the hearty condemnation
of every American who wishes well to his country.
It would be difficult to overestimate the damage done
by the example and action of a man like Governor
Altgdd of Illinois. Whether he is honest or not
in his beliefs is not of the slightest consequence.
He is as emphatically the foe of decent government
as Tweed himself, and is capable of doing far more
damage than Tweed. The Governor, who began his
career by pardoning anarchists, and whose most note-
worthy feat since was his bitter and undignified, but
fortunately futile, campaign against the election of
the upright judge who sentenced the anarchists, is
the foe of every true American and is the foe par-
ticularly of every honest workingman. With such
a man it was to be expected that he should in time
of civic commotion act as the foe of the law-abiding
and the friend of the lawless classes, and endeavor,
in company with the lowest and most abandoned
office-seeking politicians, to prevent proper measures
being taken to prevent riot and to pimish the rioters.
Had it not been for the admirable action of the Fed-

24 American Ideals

eral Government, Chicago would have seen a repe-
tition of what occurred during the Paris Commune,
while Illinois would have been torn by a fierce social
war; and for all the horrible waste of life that this
would have entailed Governor Altgeld would have
been primarily responsible. It was a most fortu-
nate thing that the action at Washington was so quick
and so emphatic. Senator Davis of Minnesota set the
key of patriotism at the time when men were still
puzzled and hesitated. The President and Attorney-
General Olney acted with equal wisdom and cour-
age, and the danger was averted. The completeness
of the victory of the Federal authorities, represent-
ing the cause of law and order, has been perhaps
one reason why it was so soon forgotten ; and now
not a few shortsighted people need to be reminded
that when we were on the brink of an almost ter-
rific explosion the Governor of Illinois did his best
to work to this coimtry a measure of harm as great
as any ever planned by Benedict Arnold, and that we
were saved by the resolute action of the Federal
judiciary and of the r^fular army. Moreover, Gov-
ernor Altgeld, though pre-eminent, did not stand
alone in his unenviable prominence. Governor Waite
of Colorado stood with him. Most of the Populist
Governors of the Western States, and the Republi-
can Governor of California and the Democratic Gov-
ernor of North Dakota, shared the shame with him ;
and it makes no diflference whether in catering to
riotous mobs they paid heed to their own timidity
and weakness, or to that spirit of blatant dema-

American Ideals 25

gogistn whidi, more than any other, jeopardizes the
existence of free institutions. On the other hand,
the action of the then Governor of Ohio, Mr. Mc-
Kinley, entitled him to the g^titude of all good
citizens.

Every true American, every man who thinks, and
who if the occasion comes is ready to act, may do
well to ponder upon the evil wrought by the law-
lessness of the disorderly classes when once they
are able to elect their own chiefs to power. If the
Government generally got into the hands of men
such as Altgeld, the Republic would go to pieces in
a year; and it would be right that it should go
to pieces, for the election of such men shows that
the people electing them are unfit to be intrusted
with self-government.

There are, however, plenty of wrong-doers be-
sides those who commit the overt act. Too much
can not be said against the men of wealth who sacri-
fice everything to getting wealth. There is not in
the world a more ignoble character than the mere
money-getting American, insensible to every duty,
regardless of every principle, bent only on amass-
ing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the
basest uses — whether these uses be to speculate in
stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his
son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness
and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoun-
drel of high social position, foreign or native, for
his daughter. Such a man is only the more dan-
gerous if he occasionally does some deed like found-
3 Vol. I.

26 American Ideals

ing a college or endowing a churcfu wfaicfa makes
those good people who are also foolish forget his
real iniquity. These men are equally cardess of
the workingmen, whom they oppress, and of tfie
State, whose existence they imperiL There are not
very many of them, bat there is a very great number
of men who approach more or less dosely to the
type, and, just in so far as they do so approadi, they
are curses to the country. The man who is con-
tent to let politics go from bad to worse, jesting
at the corruption of politicians, the man who is con-
tent to see the maladministration of justice without
an immediate and resolute effort to reform it, is
shirking his duty and is preparing the way for in-
finite woe in the future. Hard, brutal indifference
to the right, and an equally brutal shortsightedness
as to the inevitable results of corruption and injus-
tice, arc baleful beyond measure; and yet they are
characteristic of a great many Americans who think
themselves perfectly respectable, and who are con-
sidered thriving, prosperous men by their easy-going
fellow-citizens.

Another class, merging into this, and only less
dangerous, is that of the men whose ideals are pure^
ly material These are the men who are willing to
go for good government when they think it will
pay, but who measure everything by the shop-till,
the people who are unable to appreciate any quality
that is not a mercantile commodity, who do not un-
derstand that a poet may do far more for a country
than the owner of a nail factory, who do not realize

American Ideals 27

that no amount of commercial prosperity can supply
the lack of the heroic virtues, or can in itself solve
the terrible social problems which all the civilized
world is now facing. The mere materialist is, above
all things, shortsighted. In a recent article Mr.
Edward Atkinson casually mentioned that the regu-
lar army could now render the country no "effective
or useful service." Two months before this sapient
remark was printed the regular army had saved
Chicago from the fate of Paris in 1870 and had pre-
vented a terrible social war in the West. At the
end of this article Mr. Atkinson indulged in a curi-
ous rhapsody against the navy, denouncing its exist-
ence and being especially wrought up, not because
war-vessels take life, but because they "destroy com-
merce." To men 6i a certain kind, trade and prop-
erty are far more sacred than life or honor, of far
more consequence than the great thoughts and lofty
emotions, which alone make a nation mighty. They
believe, with a faith almost touching in its utter
feebleness, that "the Angel of Peace draped in a gar-
ment of untaxed calico," has given her final mes-
sage to men when she has implored them to devote
all their energies to producing oleomargarine at a
quarter of a cent less a firkin, or to importing wool-
lens for a fraction less than they can be made at
home. These solemn prattlers strive after an ideal
in which they shall happily unite the imagination of
a green-grocer with the heart of a Bengalee baboo.
They are utterly incapable of feeling one thrill of
generous emotion, or the slightest throb of that

28 American Ideals

pulse which gives to the world statesmen, patriots,
warriors, and poets, and which makes a nation other
than a cumberer of the world's surface. In the
concluding page of his article Mr. Atkinson, com-
placently advancing his panacea, his quack cure-all,
says that "all evil powers of the world will go down
before'' a policy of ^'reciprocity of trade without
obstruction"! Fatuity can go no further.

No Populist who wishes a currency based on com
and cotton stands in more urgent need of applied
common-sense than does the man who believes that
the adoption of any policy, no matter what, in ref-
erence to our foreign commerce, will cut that tan-
gled knot of social well-being and misery at which
the fingers of the London free-trader clutch as help-
lessly as those of the Berlin protectionist. Such a
man represents individually an almost imponderable
element in the work and thought of the community ;
but in the aggregate he stands for a real danger,
because he stands for a feeling evident of late years
among many respectable people. The people who
pride themselves upon having a purely commercial
ideal are apparently unaware that such an ideal is
as essentially mean and sordid as any in the world,
and that no bandit community of the Middle Ages
can have led a more unlovely life than would be the
life of men to whom trade and manufactures were
everything, and to whom such words as national
honor and glory, as courage and daring, and loyalty
and unselfishness, had become meaningless. The
merely material, the merely commercial ideal, the

American Ideals 29

ideal of the men ^Srhose fatherland is the till/' is in
its venr essence debasing and lowerii^. It is as true
now as ever it was that no man and no nation shall
live bv bread alone. Thrift and industry are indis-
pensaUe rirtues ; but Aey are not all-sufiknent. We
must base our ^ipeals for dric and national better-
ment on nobler grounds than those of mere business
expediaicr.

We have examples enough and to spare that tend
to evil ; nevertheless, for our good fortune, the men
who have most impressed themsdves upon the
thought of the nation have left behind them careers
the influence of which must tell for good. The un-
scrupulous speculator who rises to enormous wealth
by swindling his ndghbor; the capitalist who op-
presses the worldngman: the agitator who wrongs
the worldngman yet more deeply by trying to teach
him to rely not upon himself, but partly upon the
charity of individuals or of the state and partly upon
mob violence ; the man in public life who is a dema-
gogue or corrupt, and the newspaper writer who
fails to attack him because of his corruption, or who
slanderously assails him when he is honest ; the po-
litical leader who, cursed by some obliquity of moral
or of mental rision, seeks to produce sectional or
social strife — all these, though important in their
day, have hitherto failed to leave any lasting im-
press upon the life of the nation. The men who have
profoimdly influenced the growth of our national
character have been in most cases precisely those
men whose influence was for the best and was

30 American Ideals

strongly felt as antagonistic to the worst tendency
of the age. The great writers, who have written in
prose or verse, have done much for us. The great
orators, whose burning words on behalf of liberty,
of union, of honest government, have rung through
our legislative halls, have done even more. Most of
all has been done by the men who have spoken to us
through deeds and not words, or whose words have
gathered their especial charm and significance be-
cause they came from men who did speak in deeds,
A nation's greatness lies in its possibility of achieve-
ment in the present, and nothing helps it more than
the consciousness of achievement in the past.

II

TRUE AMERICANISM *

PATRIOTISM was once defined as "the last ref-
uge of a scoundrel" ; and somebody has recently-
remarked that when Dr. Johnson gave this definition
he was ignorant of the infinite possibilities contained
in the word "reform." Of course both gibes were
quite justifiable, in so far as they were aimed at peo-
ple who use noble names to cloak base purposes.
Equally of course the man shows little wisdom and
a low sense of duty who fails to see that love of
country is one of the elemental virtues, even though
scoundrels play upon it for their own selfish ends;
and, inasmuch as abuses continually grow up in
civic life as in all other kinds of life, the statesman
is indeed a weakling who hesitates to reform these
abuses because the word "reform" is often on the
lips of men who are silly or dishonest.

What is true of patriotism and reform is true also
of Americanism. There are plenty of scoundrels al-
ways ready to try to belittle reform movements or
to bolster up existing iniquities in the name of
Americanism ; but this does not alter the fact that the
man who can do most in this country is and must

* The Forum, April, 1894.

(31)

32 True Americanism

be the man whose Americanism is most sincere and
intense. Outrageous though it is to use a noble idea
as the cloak for evil, it is still worse to assail the
noble idea itself because it can thus be used. The
men who do iniquity in the name of patriotism, of
reform, of Americanism, are merely one small divi-
sion of the class that has always existed and will
always exist, — ^the class of hypocrites and dema-
gogues, the class that is always prompt to steal the
watchwords of righteousness and use them in the
interests of evil-doing.

The stoutest and truest Americans are the very
men who have the least sympathy with the people
who invoke the spirit of Americanism to aid what
is vicious in our government or to throw obstacles
in the way of those who strive to reform it. It is
contemptible to oppose a movement for good be-
cause that movement has already succeeded some-
where else, or to champion an existing abuse be-
cause our people have always been wedded to it.
To appeal to national prejudice against a given re-
form movement is in every way unworthy and silly.
It is as childish to denounce free trade because Eng-
land has adopted it as to advocate it for the same rea-
son. It is eminently proper, in dealing with the
tariff, to consider the effect of tariff legislation in
time past upon other nations as well as the effect
upon our own ; but in drawing conclusions it is in the
last degree foolish to try to excite prejudice against
one system because it is in vogue in some given
country, or to try to excite prejudice in its favor

True Americanism 33

because the economists of that country have found
that it was suited to their own peculiar needs. In
attempting to solve our difficult problem of munici-
pal government it is mere folly to refuse to profit
by whatever is good in the examples of Manchester
and Berlin because these cities are foreign, exactly
as it is mere folly blindly to copy their examples
without reference to our own totally different condi-
tions. As for the absurdity of declaiming against
civil-service reform, for instance, as "Chinese," be-
cause written examinations have been used in China,
it would be quite as wise to declaim against gun-
powder because it was first utilized by the same
people. In short, the man who, whether from mere
dull fatuity or from an active interest in misgovem-
ment, tries to appeal to American prejudice against
things foreign, so as to induce Americans to oppose
any measure for good, should be looked on by his
fellow-countrymen with the heartiest contempt So
much for the men who appeal to the spirit of Amer-
icanism to sustain us in wrong-doing. But we must
never let our contempt for these men blind us to the
nobility of the idea which they strive to degrade.
We Americans have many grave problems to
solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many
deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have
the wisdcwn, the strength, the courage, and the vir-
tue to do them. But we must face facts as they are.
We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish op-
timism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pes-
simism. Our naticm is diat one among all the na-

34 True Americanism

tions of the earth which holds in its hands the fate
of the coming years. We enjoy exceptional advan-
tages, and are menaced by exceptional dangers ; and
all signs indicate that we shall either fail greatly or
succeed greatly. I firmly believe that we shall suc-
ceed ; but we must not foolishly blink the dangers by
which we are threatened, for that is the way to fail.
On the contrary, we must soberly set to work to find
out all we can about the existence and extent of every
evil, must acknowledge it to be such, and must then
attack it with unyielding resolution. There are
many such evils, and each must be fought after a
separate fashion ; yet there is one quality which we
must bring to the solution of every problem, — that
is, an intense and fervid Americanism. We shall
never be successful over the dangers that confront
us ; we shall never achieve true greatness, nor reach
the lofty ideal which the founders and preservers of
our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, un-
less we are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and
purpose, keenly alive to the responsibility implied in
the very name of American, and proud beyond meas-
ure of the glorious privilege of bearing it.

There are two or three sides to the question of
Americanism, and two or three senses in which the
word "Americanism'' can be used to express the an-
tithesis of what is unwholesome and undesirable.
In the first place we wish to be broadly American
and national, as opposed to being local or sectional.
We do not wish, in politics, in literature, or in art,
to develop that unwholesome parochial spirit, that

True Americanism 35

over-exaltation of the little community at the ex-
pense of the great nation, which produces what has
been described as the patriotism of the village, the
patriotism of the belfry. Politically, the indulgence
of this spirit was the chief cause of the calamities
which befell the ancient repubUcs of Greece, the
mediaeval republics of Italy, and the petty States
of Germany as it was in the last century. It is
this spirit of provincial patriotism, this inabihty to
take a view of broad adhesion to the whole nation
that has been the chief among the causes that have
produced such anarchy in the South American
States, and which have resulted in presenting to
us, not one g^eat Spanish-American federal nation
stretching from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, but
a squabbling multitude of revoluticMi-ridden States,
not one of which stands even in the second rank
as a power. However, politically this question of
American nationality has been settled once for alL
We are no longer in danger of repeating in our
history the shameful and contemptible disasters that
have befallen the Spanish possessions on this con-
tinent since they threw off the yoke of Spain. In-
deed there is, all through our life, very much less
of this parochial spirit than there was formerly.
Still there is an occasional outcropping here and
there; and it is just as well that we should keep
steadily in mind the futility of talking of a North-
em literature or a Southern literature, an Eastern
or a Western school of art or science. Joel Chandler
Harris is emphatically a national writer; so is Mark

36 True Americanism

Twain. They do not write merely for Georgia or
Missouri or California any more than for Illinois
or G>nnecticut; they write as Americans and for
all people who can read English. St. Gaudens lives
in New York; but his work is just as distinctive of
Boston or Chicago. It is of very great consequence
that we should have a full and ripe literary develop-
ment in the United States, but it is not of the least
consequence whether New York, or Boston, or Chi-
cago, or San Francisco becomes the literary or
artistic centre of the United States.

There is a second side to this question of a broad
Americanism, however. The patriotism of the vil-
lage or the belfry is bad, but the lack of all patri-
otism is even worse. There are philosophers who
assure us, th^t in the future, patriotism will be re-
garded not as a virtue at all, but merely as a men-
tal stage in the journey toward a state of feeling
when our patriotism will include the whole human
race and all the world. This may be so; but the
age of which these philosophers speak is still several
seons distant. In fact, philosophers of this type are
so very advanced that they are of no practical ser-
vice to the present generation. It may be, that in
ages so remote that we can not now understand
any of the feelings of those who will dwell in them,
patriotism will no longer be regarded as a virtue,
exactly as it may be that in those remote ages peo-
ple will look down upon and disregard monogamic
marriage; but as things now are and have been for
two or three thousand years past, and are likely to

True Americanism 37

be for two or three thousand years to come, the
words "home" and "country" mean a great deal.
Nor do they show any tendency to lose their sig-
nificance. At present, treason, like adultery, ranks
as one of the worst of all possible crimes.

One may fall very short of treason and yet be
an undesirable citizen in the community. The man
who becomes Europeanized, who loses his power of
doing good work on this side of the water, and
who loses his love for his native land, is not a
traitor; but he is a silly and tmdesirable citizen.
He is as emphatically a noxious element in our
body politic as is the man who comes here from
abroad and remains a foreigner. Nothing will more
quickly or more surely disqualify a man from doing
good work in the world than the acquirement of
that flaccid habit of mind which its possessors style
cosmopolitanism.

It is not only necessary to Americanize the im-
migrants of foreign birth who settle among us, but
it is even more necessary for those among us who
are by birth and descent already Americans not to
throw away our birthright, and, with incredible
and contemptible folly, wander back to bow down
before the alien gods whom our forefathers for-
sook. It is hard to believe that there is any neces-
sity to warn Americans that, when they seek to
model themselves on the lines of other civilizations,
they make themselves the butts of all right-thinking
men; and yet the necessity certainly exists to g^ve
this warning to many of our citizens who pride

3 8 True Americanism

themselves on their standing in the world of art
and letters, or, perchance, on what they would style
their social leadership in the community. It is al-
ways better to be an original than an imitation,
even when the imitation is something better than
the original ; but what shall we say of the fool who
is content to be an imitation of something worse?
Even if the weaklings who seek to be other than
Americans were right in deeming other nations to
be better than their own, the fact yet remains that
to be a first-class American is fifty-fold better than
to be a second-class imitation of a Frenchman or
Englishman. As a matter of fact, however, those
of our countrymen who do believe in American in-
feriority are always individuals who, however cul-
tivated, have some organic weakness in their moral
or mental makeup ; and the great mass of our peo-
ple, who are robustly patriotic, and who have sound,
healthy minds, are justified in regarding these feeble
renegades with a half-impatient and half-amused
scorn.

We believe in waging relentless war on rank-
growing evils of all kinds, and it makes no differ-
ence to us if they happen to be of purely native
growth. We grasp at any good, no matter whence
it comes. We do not accept the evil attendant upon
another system of government as an adequate ex-
cuse for that attendant upon our own ; the fact that
the courtier is a scamp does not render the dema-
gogue any the less a scoundrel. But it remains true
that, in spite of all our faults and shortcomings, no

Tme Americanism 39

odier land offers socfa glorious possibilities to the
man able to take advantage of tfaem as does ours;
it remains true that no one of oar people can do
any work rcalhr wordi doing tmless he do^ it pri-
marily as an American. It is because certain classes
of our people still retain their spirit of oolosml de-
poidence on, and exaggerated defereooe to, Eo-
TopcBn opinioo, that they fail to aoxxnpHsb what
Aey ought to. It is precisely akcig the ixD^ where
we have worked most independently that we have
accomplished the greatest resnks : and it is in those
professions where there has been no senilit}' to,
but merely a wise profrring by, f oreigTi expericEMX,
that we have produced our greatest men- Our
soldiers and statesnaen airf oraiors: our explor-
ers, our wildemess-wiimers, 2nd cxcmnanweahh-
builders: the toen who have made onr laws aikd
seen that they were exccnted: and the c«ther men
whose energy and ingemirn' have created oar mar-
velous material prosperity, — ^all these have been men
who have drawn wisdom frcm the experience of
every age and nation, but who have neierthcifes
thought, and worked and canqnerei and lived,
and died, purely as Americans: and 00 the whole
diey have done better woik tisan has been done
in any other axnihj dxumg the dkort period of
onr national Hfe.

On the other hand, it is in those pfof^siont
where oor people have strireo hardest to mold
tiiemsdrcs in ocxrrcsstSoDal Ettropean iona» ^xat
tbey have snoceeded least; aad duf holds trae to

40 True Americanism

the present day, the failure being of course most
conspicuous where the man takes up his abode in
Europe ; where he becomes a second-rate European,
because he is over-civilized, over-sensitive, over-re-
fined, and has lost the hardihood and manly courage
by which alone he can conquer in the keen struggle
of our national life. Be it remembered, too, that
this same being does not really become a European ;
he only ceases being an American, and becomes
nothing. He throws away a great prize for the
sake of a lesser one, and does not even get the
lesser one. The painter who goes to Paris, not
merely to get two or three years' thorough train-
ing in his art, but with the deliberate purpose of
taking up his abode there, and with the intention
of following in the ruts worn deep by ten thousand
earlier travelers, instead of striking off to rise or
fall on a new line, thereby forfeits all chance of
doing the best work. He must content himself
with aiming at that kind of mediocrity which con-
sists in doing fairly well what has already been
done better; and he usually never even sees the
grandeur and picturesqueness lying open before the
eyes of every man who can read the book of Amer-
ica's past and the book of America's present. Thus
it is with the undersized man of letters, who flees
his country because he, with his delicate, effeminate
sensitiveness, finds the conditions of life on this
side of the water crude and raw; in other words,
because he finds that he can not play a man's part
among men, and so goes where he will be she!-

True Americanism 41

tered from the winds that harden stouter souls.
This emigre may write graceful and pretty verses,
essays, novels; but he will never do work to com-
pare with that of his brother, who is strong enough
to stand on his own feet, and do his work as an
American. Thus it is with the scientist who spends
his youth in a German university, and can thence-
forth work only in the fields already fifty times
furrowed by the German plows. Thus it is with
that most foolish of parents who sends his children
to be educated abroad, not knowing — what every
clear-sighted man from Washington and Jay down
has known — ^that the American who is to make his
way in America should be brought up among his
fellow Americans. It is among the people who
like to consider themselves, and, indeed, to a large
extent are, the leaders of the so-called social world,
especially in some of the Northeastern cities, that
this colonial habit of thought, this thoroughly pro-
vincial spirit of admiration for things foreign, and
inability to stand on one's own feet, becomes most
evident and most despicable. We believe in every
kind of honest and lawful pleasure, so long as the
getting it is not made man's chief business; and
we believe heartily in the good that can be done
by men of leisure who work hard in their leisure,
whether at politics or philanthropy, literature or
art. But a leisure class whose leisure simply means
idleness is a curse to the community, and in so far
as its members distinguish themselves chiefly by
aping the worst — not the best — ^traits of similar

42 True Americanism

people across the water, they become both comic
and noxious elements of the body poHtic.

The third sense in which the word "American-
ism" may be employed is with reference to the
Americanizing of the new-comers to our shores. We
must Americanize them in every way, in speech, in
political ideas and principles, and in their way of
looking" at the relations between Church and State.
We welcome the German or the Irishman who be-
comes an American. We have no use for the Ger-
man or Irishman who remains such. We do not
wish German-Americans and Irish-Americans who
figure as such in our social and political life; we
want only Americans, and, provided they are such,
we do not care whether they are of native or of
Irish or of German ancestry. We have no room in
any healthy American community for a German-
American vote or an Irish-American vote, and it is
contemptible demagogy to put planks into any party
platform with the purpose of catching such a vote.
We have no room for any people who .do not act
and vote simply as Americans, and as nothing else.
Moreover, we have as little use for people who carry
religious prejudices into our politics as for those
who carry prejudices of caste or nationality. We
stand unalterably in favor of the public-school sys-
tem in its entirety. We believe that English and
no other language is that in which all the school ex-
ercises should be conducted. We are against any
division of the school fund, and against any appro-
priation of public money for sectarian purposes. We

True Americanism 43

are against any recognition whatever by the State in
any shape or form of State-aided parochial schools.
But we are equally opposed to any discrimination
against or for a man because of his creed. We de-
mand that all citizens, Protestant and Catholic, Jew
and Gentile, shall have fair treatment in every way ;
that all alike shall have their rights guaranteed
them. The very reasons that make us unqualified in
our opposition to State-aided sectarian schools make
us equally bent that, in the management of our pub-
lic schools, the adherents of each creed shall be given
exact and equal justice, wholly without regard to
their religious affiliations; that trustees, superin-
tendents, teachers, scholars, all alike, shall be treated
without any reference whatsoever to the creed they
profess. We maintain that it is an outrage, in vot-
ing for a man for any position, whether State or
national, to take into account his religious faith,
provided only he is a good American. When a se-
cret society does what in some places the American
Protective Association seems to have done, and tries
to proscribe Catholics both politically and socially,
the members of such society show that they them-
selves are as utterly un-American, as alien to our
school of political thought, as the worst immigrants
who land on our shores. Their conduct is equally
base and contemptible; they are the worst foes of
our public-school system, because they strengthen
the hands of its ultramontane enemies ; they should
receive the hearty condemnation of all Americans
who are truly patriotic.

44 Tme Americanism

The mighty tide of hnm^ration to oar diores has
brought in its train nmdi of good and modi of evil ;
and whether die good or the evil shall predonmiate
depends mainly on whedier tiiese new-comers do or
do not throw diemselves heartily into oar national
life, cease to be European, and become Americans
like the rest of us. More than a third of the people
of the Northern States are of foreign birth or par-
entage. An immense number of them have become
completely Americanized, and these stand on ex-
actly the same plane as the descendants of any Puri-
tan, Cavalier, or Knickerbocker among us, and do
their full and honorable share of the nation's work.
But where immigrants or the sons of immigrants
do not heartily and in good faith throw in their lot
with us, but cling to the speech, the customs, the
ways of life, and the habits of thought of the Old
World which they have left, they thereby harm both
themselves and us. If they remain alien elements,
unassimilated, and with interests separate from ours,
they are mere obstructions to the current of our na-
tional life, and, moreover, can get no good from it
themselves. In fact, though we ourselves also suffer
from their perversity, it is they who reaUy suffer
most. It is an immense benefit to the European im-
migrant to change him into an American citizen.
To bear the name of American is to bear the most
honorable of titles; and whoever does not so be-
lieve has no business to bear the name at all, and, if
he comes from Europe, the sooner he goes back there
the better. Besides, the man who does not become

True Americanism 45

Americanized nevertheless fails to remain a Euro-
pean, and becomes nothing at all. The immigrant
can not possibly remain what he was, or continue
to be a member of the Old- World society. If he
tries to retain his old language, in a few generations
it becomes a barbarous jargon; if he tries to retain
his old customs and ways of life, in a few genera-
tions he becomes an uncouth boor. He has cut him-
self off from the Old World, and can not retain his
connection with it ; and if he wishes ever to amount
to anything he must throw himself heart and soul,
and without reservation, into the new life to which
he has come. It is urgently necessary to check and
regulate our immigration, by much more drastic laws
than now exist ; and this should be done both to keep
out laborers who tend to depress the labor market,
and to keep out races which do not assimilate read-
ily with our own, and unworthy individuals of all
races — ^not only criminals, idiots, and paupers, but
anarchists of the Most and OT)onovan Rossa type.
From his own standpoint, it is beyond all ques-
tion the wise thing for the immigrant to become
thoroughly Americanized. Moreover, from our
standpoint, we have a right to demand it. We
freely extend the hand of welcome and of good-fel-
lowship to every man, no matter what his creed or
birthplace, who comes here honestly intent on be-
coming a good United States citizen like the rest of
us; but we have a right, and it is our duty to de-
mand that he shall indeed become so, and shall not
confuse the issues with which we are struggling by

4^ Tnse Americanism

iufrfAfiifir%$^ «w>n^ « CM-Worid qaarrds and pref-
*u\itjfA. 'n.^<: are certain ideas which be nnist gire
tif^, Jv/f tn^tatKe, he tntsst learn that American lite
n iw/ympatible with the existence of any form of
WMirdty, //T of zny uxrtt sodcty having nrarder for
if^ ^im, whether at home or Bbrosid; and he must
karn that we exact full rdigious toleration and the
afmpkie fitifSirzu^m of Church and State. More-
over, Jie niu?»t nr/t 1/rin^ in his Old-World religious
fHjf^t: an^l naliV/n;il antij/athies, but must merge them
i»t/; love ff/r </ur crmimon country, and must take
i;ridc in the things which we can all take pride in.
I It* muHt Tcvitre only f/ur flag ; not only must it come
firnt, Imt no ^-^ther flag should even come second. He
mmi l«im to celebrate Washington's birthday rather
than that of the Queen or Kaiser, and the Fourth
of July instead of St. Patrick's Day. Our political
ancj H^)cial (|uestions must be settled on their own
merits, and not complicated by quarrels between
ICngland and Ireland, or France and Germany, with
which we have nothing to do; it is an outrage to
fight an American political campaign with reference
to (jucstions of European politics. Above all, the im-
migrant must learn to talk and think and be United
States.

The immigrant of to-day can learn much from
tl^e experience of the immigrants of the past, who
CHine to America prior to the Revolutionary War.
\W were then already, what we are now, a people of
lui-veU blood. Many of our most illustrious Revo-
Uuitnmry names were borne by men of Huguenot

True Americanism 47

blood — Jay, Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Hu-
guenots were, on the whole, the best immigrants we
have ever received ; sooner than any other, and more
completely, they became American in speech, con-
viction, and thought The Hollanders took longer
than the Huguenots to become completely assimi-
lated; nevertheless they in the end became so, im-
mensely to their own advantage. One of the lead-
ing Revolutionary generals, Schuyler, and one of the
Presidents of the United States, Van Buren, were
of Dutch blood ; but they rose to their positions, the
highest in the land, because they had become Amer-
icans and had ceased being Hollanders. If they
had remained members of an alien body, cut off by
their speech and customs and belief from the rest of
the American community, Schuyler would have lived
his life as a boorish, provincial squire, and Van
Buren would have ended his days a small tavern-
keeper. So it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania.
Those of them who became Americanized have fur
nished to our history a multitude of honorable names,
from the days of the Muhlenbergs onward; but
those who die- not become Americanized form to the
present day an unimportant body, of no significance
in American existence. So it is with the Irish, who
gave to Revolutionary annals such names as Car-
roll and Sullivan, and to the Civil War men like
Sheridan — ^men who were Americans and nothing
else: while the Irish who remain such, and busy
themselves solely with the alien politics, can have
only an unhealthy influence upon American life,

48 True Americanism

and can never rise as do their compatriots who be-
come straightout Americans. Thus it has ever been
with all people who have come hither, of whatever
stock or blood. The same thing is true of the
churches. A church which remains foreign, in lan-
guage or spirit, is doomed.

But I wish to be distinctly understood on one
point. Americanism is a question of spirit, con-
viction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace. The
politician who bids for the Irish or German vote, or
the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman
or German, is despicable, for all citizens of this com-
monwealth should vote solely as Americans ; but he
is not a whit less despicable than the voter who votes
against a good American, merely because that Amer-
ican happens to have been bom in Ireland or Ger-
many. Know,-nothingism, in any form, is as utterly
un-American as foreignism. It is a base outrage to
oppose a man because of his religion or birthplace,
and all good citizens will hold any such effort in ab-
horrence. A Scandinavian, a German, or an Irish-
man who has really become an American has the
right to stand on exactly the same footing as any
native-bom citizen in the land, and is just as much
entitled to the friendship and support, social and po-
litical, of his neighbors. Among the men with
whom I have been thrown in close personal contact
socially, and who have been among my stanchest
friends and allies politically, are not a few Ameri-
cans who happen to have been born on the other side
of the water, in Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia; and

True Americanism 49

there could be no better men in the ranks of our
native-bom citizens.

In closing, I can not better express the ideal at-
titude that should be taken by our fellow-citizens of
foreign birth than by quoting the words of a rep-
resentative American, bom in Germany, the Hon-
orable Richard Guenther of Wisconsin. In a speech
spoken at the time of the Samoan trouble, he said :

"We know as well as any other class of American
citizens where our duties belong. We will work for
our country in time of peace and fight for it in time
of war, if a time of war should ever come. When
I say our country, I mean, of course, our adopted
country. I mean the United States of America.
After passing through the cmcible of naturalization,
we are no longer Germans ; we are Americans. Our
attachment to America can not be measured by. the
length of our residence here. We are Americans
from the moment we touch the American shore until
we are laid in American graves. We will fight for
America whenever necessary. America, first, last,
and all the time. America against Germany, Amer-
ica against the world ; America, right or wrong ; al-
ways America. We are Americans."

All honor to the man who spoke such words as
those ; and I believe they express the feelings of the
great majority of those among our fellow-Ameri-
can citizens who were bom abroad. We Americans
can only do our allotted task well if we face it stead-
3 Vol. I.

50 True Americanism

ily and bravely, seeing but not fearing the dangers.
Above all we must stand shoulder to shoulder, not
asking as to the ancestry or creed of our comrades,
but only demanding that they be in very truth
Americans, and that we all work together, heart,
hand, and head, for the honor and the greatness of
our common coimtry.

Ill

THE MANLY VIRTUES AND PRACTICAL
POLITICS ♦

SOMETIMES, in addressing men who sincerely
desire the betterment of our public affairs, but
who have not taken active part in directing them,
I feel tempted to tell them that there are two gos-
pels which should be preached to every reformer.
The first is the gospel of morality ; the second is the
gospel of efficiency.

To decent, upright citizens it is hardly necessary
to preach the doctrine of morality as applied to the
affairs of public life. It is an even graver offence
to sin against the commonwealth than to sin against
an individual. The man who debauches our public
life, whether by malversation of funds in office,
by the actual bribery of voters or of legislators, or
by the corrupt use of the offices as spoils wherewith
to reward the unworthy and the vicious for their
noxious and interested activity in the baser walks of
political life, — ^this man is a greater foe to our well-
bdng as a nation than is even the defaulting cashier
of a bank, or the betrayer of a private trust. No
amount of intelligence and no amount of energy will
save a nation which is not honest, and no govem-

♦ The Forum, July, 1894.

(51)

Jt* ^fut TfSSEc^esy: -icnn^ the int: psfii^ :tiif
ustdn^-iA T. -Jie inc2ssr7 ir zt^ssl if ntr :

?«in«{. isttii 'ilesiL ixr -iie Tonrr unr :fie jp

52 Morality and Efficiency

ment can ever be a permanent success if administered
in accordance with base ideals. The first requisite
in the citizen who wishes to share the work of our
public life, whether he wishes himself to hold office
or merely to do his plain duty as an American by
taking part in the management of our political ma-
chinery, is that he shall act disinterestedly and with
a sincere purpose to serve the whole commonwealth.
But disinterestedness and honesty and unselfish
desire to do what is right are not enough in them-
selves. A man must not only be disinterested, but
he must be efficient. If he goes into politics he must
go into practical politics, in order to make his influ-
ence felt. Practical politics must not be construed to
mean dirty politics. On the contrary, in the long
run the politics of fraud and treachery and foulness
are unpractical politics, and the most practical of all
politicians is the politician who is clean and decent
and upright. But a man who goes into the actual
battles of the political world must prepare himself
much as he would for the struggle in any other
branch of our life. He must be prepared to meet
men of far lower ideals than his own, and to face
things, not as he would wish them, but as they are.
He must not lose his own high ideal, and yet he
must face the fact that the majority of the men with
whom he must work have lower ideals. He must
stand firmly for what he believes, and yet he must
realize that political action, to be effective, must be
the joint action of many men, and that he must
sacrifice somewhat of his own opinions to those

Morality and Efficicnqr S3

of his associates if he ever hopes to see his desires
take practical shape.

The prime thing that every man who takes an
interest in politics should remember is that he must
act, and not merely criticise the actions of others.
It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his
evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and
politicians are, who will ever do anything to save
us ; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly-
burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political
meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms.
The real service is rendered, not by the critic who
stands aloof from the contest, but by the man who
enters into it and bears his part as a man should, un-
deterred by the blood and the sweat. It is a pleasant
but a dangerous thing to associate merely with cul-
tivated, refined men of high ideals and sincere pur-
pose to do right, and to think that one has done all
one's duty by discussing politics with such asso-
ciates. It is a good thing to meet men of this
stamp; indeed it is a necessary thing, for we thereby
brighten our ideals, and keep in touch with, the peo-
ple who are unselfish in their purposes; but if we
associate with such men exclusively we can accom-
plish nothing. The actual battle must be fought out
on other and less pleasant fields. The actual ad-
vance must be made in the field of practical politics
among the men who represent or guide or control
the mass of the voters, the men who are sometimes
rough and coarse, who sometimes have lower ideals
than they should, but who are capable, masterful, and

56 Morality and EfBciency

who fails to try to make that party in any way bet-
ter, commits a crime against the country; and a
crime quite as serious is committed by the inde-
pendent who makes his independence an excuse for
easy self-indulgence, and who thinks that when he
says he belongs to neither party he is excused from
the duty of taking part in the practical work of
party organizations. The party man is bound to do
his full share in party management. He is bound
to attend the caucuses and the primaries, tp see that
only good men are put up, and to exert his influence
as strenuously against the foes of good govern-
ment within his party, as, through his party ma-
chinery, he does against those who are without the
party. In the same way the independent, if he can
not take part in the regular organizations, is bound
to do just as much active constructive work (not
merely the work of criticism) outside; he is bound
to try to get up an organization of his own and to
try to make that organization felt in some effective
manner. Whatever course the man who wishes to
do his duty by his country takes in reference to
parties or to independence of parties, he is bound to
try to put himself in touch with men who think as
he does, and to help make their joint influence felt
in behalf of the powers that go for decency and
good government. He must try to accomplish
things ; he must not vote in the air unless it is really
necessary. Occasionally a man must cast a "con-
science vote," when there is no possibility of carry-
ing to victory his principles or his nominees; at

Morality and Efficicnqr 57

times, indeed, this may be his highest duty : but or-
dinarily this is not the case. As a general rule a
man ought to work and vote for something which
there is at least a fair chance of putting into effect.

Yet another thing to be remembered by the man
who wishes to make his influence felt for good in
our politics is that he must act purely as an Ameri-
can. If he is not deeply imbued with the American
spirit he can not succeed. Any organization which
tries to work along the line of caste or creed, which
fails to treat all American citizens on their merits
as men, will fail, and will deserve to fail. Where
our political life is healthy, there is and can be no
room for any movement organized to help or to
antagonize men because they do or do not profess
a certain religion, or because they were or. were not
bom here or abroad. We have a right to ask that
those with whom we associate, and those for whom
we vote, shall be themselves good Americans in
heart and spirit, unhampered by adherence to for-
eign ideals, and acting without regard to the national
and religious prejudices of European countries; but
if they really are good Americans in spirit and
thought and purpose, that is all that we have any
right to consider in regard to them. In the same way
there must be no discrimination for or against any
man because of his social standing. On the one side,
there is nothing to be made out of a political or-
ganization which draws an exclusive social line, and
on the other it must be remembered that it is just as
un-American to vote against a man because he is

5$ Morilitj and Efficiency

rich as to vote agaii^ him because be is poor. The
one man has just as much right as the other to claim
to be treated pnrdy on his merits as a man. In
nbort, to do good work in politics, the men who or-
ganize must OTgasnze wholly wi&out regard to
whether their associates were bom here or abroad,
whether they are Protestants or Catholics, Jews or
Gentiles, whether they are bankers or butchers, pro-
fessors or day-laborers. All that can rightly be
asked of one's political associates is that they shall
be honest men, good Americans and substantially
in accord as r^;ards their political ideas.

Another thing that must not be forgotten by the
man desirous of doing good political work is the
need of the rougher, manlier virtues, and above all
the virtue of personal courage, physical as well as
moral. If we wish to do good work for our coun-
try, we must be unselfish, disinterested, sincerely de-
sirous of the well-being of the commonwealth, and
capable of devoted adherence to a lofty ideal; but
in addition we must be vigorous in mind and body,
able to hold our own in rough conflict with our
fellows, able to suffer punishment without flinch-
ing, and, at need, to repay it in kind with full in-
terest A peaceful and commercial civilization is al-
ways in danger of suffering the loss of the virile
fighting qualities without which no nation, however
cultured, however refined, however thrifty and pros-
perous, can ever amount to anything. Every citi-
zen should be taught, both in public and in private
life, that while he must avoid brawling and quar-

Morality and Efficienqr 59

reling, it is his duty to stand up for his rights. He
must realize that the only man who is more con-
temptible than the blusterer and bully is the coward.
No man is worth much to the commonwealth if he
is not capable of feeling righteous wrath and just
indignation, if he is not stirred to hot anger by mis-
doing, and is not impelled to see justice meted out to
the wrong-doers. No man is worth much any-
where if he does not possess both moral and physical
courage. A politician who really serves his country
well, and deserves his country's gratitude, must usu-
ally possess some of the hardy virtues which we ad-
mire in the soldier who serves his country well in
the field.

An ardent young reformer is very apt to try to
begin by reforming too much. He needs always to
keep in mind that he has got to serve as a sergeant
before he assumes the duties of commander-in-chief.
It is right for him from the beginning to take a great
interest in national. State, and municipal affairs,
and to try to make himself felt in them if the occa-
sion arises; but the best work must be done by the
citizen working in his own ward or district. Let
him associate himself with the men who think as
he does, and who, like him, are sincerely devoted
to the public good. Then let them try to make them-
selves felt in the choice of alderman, of councilman,
of Assemblyman. The politicians will be prompt to
recognize their power, and the people will recognize
it too, after a while. Let them organize and work,
undaunted by any temporary defeat. If they fail

6o Morality and Efficiency

at first, and if they fail again, let them merely make
up their minds to redouble their efforts, and per-
haps alter their methods; but let them keep on
working.

It is sheer unmanliness and cowardice to shrink
from the contest because at first there is failure,
or because the work is difficult or repulsive. No
man who is worth his salt has any right to abandon
the effort to better our politics merely because he,
does not find it pleasant, merely because it entails
associations which to him happen to be disagree-
able. Let him keep right on, taking the buffets
he gets good-humoredly, and repaying them with
heartiness when the chance arises. Let him make
up his mind that he will have to face the violent
opposition of the spoils politician, and also, too
often, the unfair and ungenerous criticism of those
who ought to know better. Let him be careful
not to show himself so thin-skinned as to mind
either; let him fight his way forward, paying only
so much regard to both as is necessary to enable
him to win in spite of them. He may not, and
indeed probably will not, accomplish nearly as much
as he would Hke to, or as he thinks he ought to:
but he will certainly accomplish something; and
if he can feel that he has helped to elevate the
type of representative sent to the municipal, the
State, or the national legislature from his district,
or to elevate the standard of duty among the pub-
lic officials in his own ward, he has a right to be
profoundly satisfied with what he has accomplished.

Morality and Efficicnqr 6i

Finally, there is one other matter which the man
who tries to wake his fellows to higher political
action would do well to ponder. It is a good thing
to appeal to citizens to work for good gfovemment
because it will better their estate materially, but
it is a far better thing to iappeal to them to work
for good government because it is right in itself
to do so. Doubtless, if we can have clean honest
politics, we shall be better off in material matters.
A thoroughly pure, upright, and capable adminis-
tration of the affairs of New York City results in
a very appreciable increase of comfort to each citi-
zen. We should have better systems of transporta-
tion; we should have cleaner streets, better sewers,
and the like. But it is sometimes difficult to show
the individual citizen that he will be individually
better off in his business and in his home affairs
for taking part in politics. I do not think it is
always worth while to show that this will always
be the case. The citizen should be appealed to
primarily on the ground that it is his plain duty,
if he wishes to deserve the name of freeman, to
do his full share in the hard and difficult work of
self-government. He must do his share unless he
is willing to prove himself unfit for free institu-
tions, fit only to live under a government where
he will be plundered and bullied because he de-
serves to be plundered and bullied on account of
his selfish timidity and short-sightedness. A clean
and decent government is sure in the end to benefit
our citizens in the material circumstances of their

62 Morality and Efficiency

lives; but each citizen should be appealed to, to
take part in bettering our politics, not for the
sake of any possible improvement it may bring
to his affairs, but on the ground that it is his
plain duty to do so, and that this is a duty which
it is cowardly and dishonorable in him to shirk.

To sum up, then, the men who wish to work
for decent politics must work practically, and yet
must not swerve from their devotion to a high
ideal. They must actually do things, and not merely
confine themselves to criticising those who do them.
They must work disinterestedly, and appeal to the
disinterested element in others, although they must
also do work which will result in the material bet-
terment of the community. They must act as Amer-
icans through and through, in spirit and hope and
purpose, and, while being disinterested, unselfish,
and generous in their dealings with others, they
must also show that they possess the essential
manly virtues of energy, of resolution, and of in-
domitable personal courage.

I\^

THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AND PUBUC
LIFE*

THERE are always, in oar national life, certain
tendencies that give us ground for alarm,
and certain others that give us ground for hope.
Among the latter we must put the fact that there
has undoubtedly been a groi^-ing feeling among
educated men that they are in honor bound to do
their full share of the work of American public life.
We have in this cotmtry an equality of rights.
It is the plain duty of every man to see that his
rights are respected. That weak good-nature which
acquiesces in wrongdoing, whether from laziness,
timidity, or indifference, is a very unwholesome
quality. It should be second nature with every
man to insist that he be given full justice. But if
there is an equality of rights, there is an inequality
of duties. It is proper to demand more from the
man with exceptional advantages than from the
man without them. A heavy moral obligation
rests upon the man of means and upon the man
of education to do their full duty by their country.
On no class does this obligation rest more heavily
tiian upon the men with a coU^fiate education, the

* AtkmHc Monthly, Augtsst, 1894.

(65)

64 Colleges and Public Life

men who are graduates of our universities. Their
education gives them no right to feel the least
superiority over any of their fellow-citizens; but
it certainly ought to make them feel that they should
stand foremost in the honorable effort to serve the
whole public by doing their duty as Americans in
the body politic. This obligation very possibly rests
even more heavily upon the men of means; but of
this it is not necessary now to speak. The men
of mere wealth never can have and never should
have the capacity for doing good work that is pos-
sessed by the men of exceptional mental training;
but that they may become both a laughing-stock
and a menace to the community is made unpleas-
antly apparent by that portion of the New York
business and social world which is most in evidence
in the newspapers.

To the great body of men who have had excep-
tional advantages in the way of educational facili-
ties we have a right, then, to look for good service
to the State. The service may be rendered in many
different ways. In a reasonable number of cases,
the man may himself rise to high political position.
That men actually do so rise is shown by the num-
ber of graduates of Harvard, Yale, and our other
universities who are now taking a prominent part
in public life. These cases must necessarily, how-
ever, form but a small part of the whole. The
enormous majority of our educated men have to
make their own living, and are obliged to take up
careers in which they must work heart and soul

Colleges and Public Life 65

to succeed. Nevertheless, the man of business and
the man of science, the doctor of divinity and the
doctor of law, the architect, the engineer, and the
writer, all alike owe a positive duty to the com-
munity, the neglect of which they can not excuse
on any plea of their pri\'ate affairs. They are
bound to follow understanding^ the course of
public events; they are boimd to try to estimate
and form judgment upon public men; and they are
bound to act intelligently and eflfectively in support
of the principles which they deem to be right and
for the best interests of the country.

The most important thing for this class of edu-
cated men to realize is that they do not really form
a class at all. I have used the word in default of
another, but I have merely used it roughly to
group together people who have had unusual op-
portunities of a certain kind. A large number of
the people to whom these opportunities are offered
fail to take advantage of them, and a very much
larger number of those to whom they have not
been offered succeed none the less in making them
for themselves. An educated man must not go into
politics as such ; he must go in simply as an Ameri-
can ; and when he is once in, he will speedily real-
ize that he must work very hard indeed, or he
will be upset by some other American, with no
education at all, but with much natural capacity.
His education ought to make him feel particularly
ashamed of himself if he acts meanly or dishonor-
ably, or in any way falls short of the ideal of good

66 Colleges and Public Life

citizenship, and it ought to make him feel that he
must show that he has profited by it ; but it should
certainly give him no feeling of superiority until
by actual work he has shown that superiority. In
other words, the educated man must realize that
he is living in a democracy and under democratic
conditions, and that he is entitled to no more re-
spect and consideration than he can win by actual
performance.

This must be steadily kept in mind not only by
educated men themselves, but particularly by the
men who give the tone to our great educational
institutions. These educational institutions, if they
are to do their best work, must strain every effort
to keep their life in touch with the life of the na-
tion at the present day. This is necessary for the
country, but it is very much more necessary for
the educated men themselves. It is a misfortune
for any land if its people of cultivation take little
part in shaping its destiny; but the misfortune is
far greater for the people of cultivation. The coun-
try has a right to demand the honest and efficient
service of every man in it, but especially of every
man who has had the advantage of rigid mental
and moral training; the country is so much the
poorer when any class of honest men fail to do
their duty by it; but the loss to the class itself is
immeasurable. If our educated men as a whole
become incapable of playing their full part in our
life, if they cease doing their share of the rough,
hard work which must be done, and grow to take

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great arnsL NA'trn v>*v i wiy \t >.i».^*.*. »

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68 Colleges and Public Life

is a source of great harm to the nation :
ignorant or prejudiced critics are thenisc!
cated men, their attitude does real hanr.
the class to which they belong.

The tone of a portion of the press of ilic
toward public men, and especially toward
opponents, is degrading, all forms of r^v
noisy slander being apparently considered- ^«
weapons to employ against men of ■■'•
party or faction. Unfortunately, not a i'^
journals that pride themselves upon hi^^r
pendent in politics, and the organs <^ r-
men, betray the same characteristics in :\ I ^
but quite as noxious form. All these j' :
great harm by accustoming good cili/A-v
their public men, good and bad, assr^V
criminately as scoundrels. The effect i-
the citizen learning, on the one hand, t '
any statement he sees in any newspaper, ....

attacks on evil lose their edge; and on
gradually acquiring a deep-rooted beiiei ji
public men are more or less bad. In c. >..
his political instinct becomes hopelesa* y i
he grows imable to tell' the good reprt:>
the bad. The worst offence that can .,^. ......

against the Republic is the offence of i:.^. ^ .
who betrays his trust; but second onl^ .^ .

the offence of t^^ '«•' ^ho tries to pcr^..

that an hone«^ *' ^iWic man .. x,.,

or unwort^ Int cii.:

fitted W ^fllfeuii-

tLl\^ ..l:

i^ublic Life 73

. c\cr taken an active

.'. .>LU'lie«l politics in the

'. i«i siivly surq:ery and

:i ;i liinuo-ht : but very

;:-L' tiiL-y were misdi-

^' wli' My i,cni<^rant that

. ■ ill i« 'lit a problem Ije-

'•-n. The English, or

:y or jmrhamentary

■.^'Mm])atible with our

:s. It coulfl not Ije

: 'V al>>«»hitely sweepiiij:;

iiMii"!!. Inciflcntally,

A' !::st 'Ic(:;Tce uiylesir-

■ '."It this i- not tlie point

: lilt' i)oint \<i thut it was

'r. into r,pcration, and

i- k\:v\ of ^r>vernnient

\n\. The people who

•!ir, wliereas they could

:at,^e liad tlicy seriously

: .-"Uirht to devise prac-

:> of increasincT and cen-

ly — for all thinking men

riniihted need for a change

■ "^rk that has

^ has been

- though

^he

68 Colleges and Public Life

is a source of great harm to the nation; and where
ignorant or prejudiced critics are themselves edu-
cated men, their attitude does real harm also to
the class to which they belong.

The tone of a portion of the press of the country
toward public men, and especially toward political
opponents, is degrading, all forms of coarse and
noisy slander being apparently considered legitimate
weapons to employ against men of the opposite
party or faction. Unfortunately, not a few of the
journals that pride themselves upon being inde-
pendent in politics, and the organs of cultivated
men, betray the same characteristics in a less coarse
but quite as noxious form. All these journals do
great harm by accustoming good citizens to see
their public men, good and bad, assailed indis-
criminately as scoundrels. The effect is twofold:
the citizen learning, on the one hand, to disbelieve
any statement he sees in any newspaper, so that the
attacks on evil lose their edge; and on the other,
gradually acquiring a deep-rooted belief that all
public men are more or less bad. In consequence,
his political instinct becomes hopelessly blurred, and
he grows imable to tell the good representative from
the bad. The worst offence that can be committed
against the Republic is the offence of the public man
who betrays his trust; but second only to it comes
the offence of the man who tries to persuade others
that an honest and efficient public man is dishonest
or unworthy. This is a wrong that can be com-
mitted in a great many different ways. Downright

Colleges and Public Life 69

foul abuse may be, after all, less dangerous than
incessant misstatements, sneers, and those half-truths
that are the meanest lies.

For educated men of weak fibre, there lies a real
danger in that species of literary work which ap-
peals to their cultivated senses because of its scholar-
ly and pleasant tone, but which enjoins as the proper
attitude to assume in public life one of mere criti-
cism and negation; which teaches the adoption to-
ward public men and public affairs of that sneering
tone which so surely denotes a mean and small
mind. If a man does not have belief and enthu-
siasm, the chances are small indeed that he will ever
do a man's work in the world ; and the paper or the
college which, by its general course, tends to eradi-
cate this power of belief and enthusiasm, this desire
for work, has rendered to the young men under its
influence the worst service it could possibly render.
Good can often be done by criticising sharply and
severely the wrong ; but excessive indulgence in crit-
icism is never anything but bad, and no amount of
criticism can in any way take the place of active and
zealous warfare for the right.

Again, there is a certain tendency in college life,
a tendency encouraged by some of the very papers
referred to, to make educated men shrink from con-
tact with the rough people who do the world's work,
and associate only with one another and with those
who think as they do. This is a most dangerous
tendency. It is very agreeable to deceive one's self
into the belief that one is performing the whole duty

70 Colleges and Public Life

of man by sitting at home in ease, doing nothing
wrong, and confining one's participation in politics
to conversations and meetings with men who have
had the same training and look at things in the same
way. It is always a temptation to do this, because
those who do nothing else often speak as if in some
way they deserved credit for their attitude, and as
if they stood above their brethren who plow the
rough fields. Moreover, many people whose politi-
cal work is done more or less after this fashion are
very noble and very sincere in their aims and aspi-
rations, and are striving for what is best and most
decent in public life.

Nevertheless, this is a snare round which it be-
hooves every young man to walk carefully. Let
him beware of associating only with the people of
his own caste and of his own little ways of political
thought. Let him learn that he must deal with the
mass of men ; that he must go out and stand shoul-
der to shoulder with his friends of every rank, and
face to face with his foes of every rank, and must
bear himself well in the hurly-burly. He must not
be frightened by the many unpleasant features of
the contest, and he must not expect to have it all
his own way, or to accomplish too much. He will
meet with checks and will make many mistakes;
but if he perseveres, he will achieve a measure of
success and will do a measure of good such as is
never possible to the refined, cultivated, intellectual
men who shrink aside from the actual fray.

Yet again, collie men must learn to be as prac-

Colleges and Public Life 71

tical in politics as they would be in business or in law.
It is surely unnecessary to say that by "practical" I
do not mean anything that savors in the least of dis-
honesty. On the contrary, a college man is pe-
culiarly bound to keep a high ideal and to be true
to it; but he must work in practical ways to try to
realize this ideal, and must not refuse to do any-
thing because he can not get everything. One espe-
cially necessary thing is to know the facts by actual
experience, and not to take refuge in mere theoriz-
ing. There are always a number of excellent and
well-meaning men whom we grow to regard with
amused impatience because they waste all their en-
ergies on some visionary scheme which, even if it
were not visionary, would be useless. When they
come to deal with political questions, these men are
apt to err from sheer lack of familiarity with the
workings of our government. No man ever really
learned from books how to manage a governmental
system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and the
statesman who has carefully studied them is far
more apt to do good work than if he had not ; but
if he has never done ans^thing but study books he
will not be a statesman at all. Thus, every young
politician should of course read the "Federalist."
It is the greatest book of the kind that has ever been
written. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay would have
been poorly equipped for writing it if they had not
possessed an extensive acquaintance with literature,
and in particular if they had not been careful stu-
dents of political literature; but the great cause of

72 Colleges and Public Life

the value of their writings lay in the fact that they
knew by actual work and association what practical
politics meant They had helped to shape the po-
litical thought of the country, and to do its legis-
lative and executive work, and so they were in a
condition to speak understanding^ about it For
similar reasons, Mr. Bryce's "American Common-
wealth" has a value possessed by no other book of
the kind, largely because Mr. Bryce is himself an
active member of Parliament, a man of good stand-
ing and some leadership in his own party, and a
practical politician. In the same way, a life of
Washington by Cabot Lodge, a sketch of Lincoln
by Carl Schurz, a biography of Pitt by Lord Rose-
bery, have an added value because of the writers'
own work in politics.

It is always a pity to see men fritter away their
energies on any pointless scheme; and, unfortu-
nately, a good many of our educated people when
they come to deal with politics do just such fritter-
ing. Take, for instance, the queer freak of argu-
ing in favor of establishing what its advocates are
pleased to call "responsible government" in our
institutions, or, in other words, of grafting certain
features of the English parliamentary system upon
our own Presidential and Congressional system.
This agitation was too largely deficient in body to
enable it to last, and it has now, I think, died away;
but at one time quite a number of our men who
spoke of themselves as students of political history
were engaged in treating this scheme as something

Colleges and Public Life 73

serious. Few men who had ever taken an active
part in politics, or who had studied poHtics in the
way that a doctor is expected to study surgery and
medicine, so much as gave it a thought; but very
intelligent men did, just because they were misdi-
recting their energies, and were wholly ignorant that
they ought to know practically about a problem be-
fore they attempted its solution. The English, or
so-called "responsible,'' theory of parliamentary
government is one entirely incompatible with our
own governmental institutions. It could not be
put into operation here save by absolutely sweeping
away the United States Constitution. Incidentally,
I may say it would be to the last degree undesir-
able, if it were practicable. But this is not the point
upon which I wish to dwell ; the point is that it was
wholly impracticable to put it into operation, and
that an agitation favoring this kind of government
was from its nature unintelligent. The people who
wrote about it wasted their time, whereas they could
have spent it to great advantage had they seriously
studied our institutions and sought to devise prac-
ticable and desirable methods of increasing and cen-
tring genuine responsibility — for all thinking men
agree that there is an undoubted need for a change
in this direction.

But of course much of the best work that has
been done in the field of political study has been
done by men who were not active politicians, though
they were careful and painstaking students of the
lAcnomena of politics. The back numbers of our
4 Vol. I.

74 Colleges and Public Life

leading magazines afford proof of this. Certain of
the governmental essays by such writers as Mr.
Lawrence Lowell and Professor A. B. Hart, and
especially such books as that on the "Speaker's
Powers and Duties," by Miss Follet, have been
genuine and valuable contributions to our political
thought. These essays have been studied carefully
not only by scholars, but by men engaged in prac-
tical politics, because they were written with good
judgment and keen insight after careful investiga-
tion of the facts, and so deserved respectful attention.
It is a misfortune for any people when the paths
of the practical and the theoretical politicians di-
verge so widely that they have no common standing-
groimd. When the Greek thinkers began to devote
their attention to purely visionary politics of the kind
found in Plato's "Republic," while the Greek prac-
tical politicians simply exploited the quarrelsome
little commonwealths in their own interests, then the
end of Greek liberty was at hand. No government
that can not command the respectful support of the
best thinkers is in an entirely sound condition; but
it is well to keep in mind the remark of Frederick
the Great, that if he wished to punish a province, he
would allow it to be governed by the philosophers.
It is a great misfortune for the country when the
practical politician and the doctrinaire have np point
in common, but the misfortune is, if anything, great-
est for the doctrinaire. The ideal to be set before the
student of politics and the practical politician alike
is the ideal of the "Federalist." Each man should

Colleges and Public Life 75

realize that he can not do his best, either in the
study of politics or in applied politics unless he has
a working knowledge of both branches. A limited
number of people can do work by the careful study
of govermental institutions, but they can do it only
if they have themselves a practical knowledge of the
workings of these institutions. A very large num-
ber of people, on the other hand, may do excellent
work in politics without much theoretic knowledge
of the subject ; but without this knowledge they can
not rise to the highest rank, while in any rank their
capacity to do good work will be immensely increased
if they have such knowledge.

There are certain other qualities, about which
it is hardly necessary to speak. If an educated man
is not heartily American in instinct and feeling and
taste and sympathy, he will amount to nothing in
our public life. Patriotism, love of country, and
pride in the flag which symbolizes country may be
feelings which the race will at some period outgrow,
but at present they are very real and strong, and the
man who lacks them is a useless creature, a mere
incumbrance to the land.

A man of sound political instincts can no more
subscribe to the doctrine of absolute independence
of party on the one hand than to that of unquestion-
ing party alliance on the other. No man can ac-
complish much unless he works in an organization
with others, and this organization, no matter how
temporary, is a party for the time being. But that
man is a dangerous citizen who so far mistakes

76 Colleges and Public Life

means for ends as to become servile in his devotion to
his party, and afraid to leave it when the party goes
wrong. To deify either independence or party alle-
giance merely as such is a little absurd. It depends
entirely upon the motive, the purpose, the result.
For the last two years, the Senator who, beyond all
his colleagues in the United States Senate, has shown
himself independent of party ties is the very man to
whom the leading champions of independence in
politics most strenuously object. The truth is, sim-
ply, that there are times when it may be the duty of
a man to break with his party, and there are other
times when it may be his duty to stand by his party,
even though, on some points, he thinks that party
wrong ; he must be prepared to leave it when neces-
sary, and he must not sacrifice his influence by leav-
ing it unless it is necessary. If we had no party
allegiance, our politics would become mere windy
anarchy, and, under present conditions, our gov-
ernment could hardly continue at all. If we had
no independence, we should always be running the
risk of the most degraded kind of despotism, — the
despotism of the party boss and the party machine.
It is just the same way about compromises. Oc-
casionally one hears some well-meaning person say
of another, apparently in praise, that he is "never
willing to compromise." It is a mere truism to say
that, in politics, there has to be one continual com-
promise. Of course now and then questions arise
upon which a compromise is inadmissible. There
could be no compromise with secession, and there

Colleges and Public Life 77

was none. There should be no avoidable compro-
mise about any great moral question. But only a
few great reforms or great measures of any kind can
be carried through without concession. No student
of American history needs to be reminded that the
Constitution itself is a bundle of compromises, and
was adopted only because of this fact, and that the
same thing is true of the Emancipation Proclamation.
In conclusion, then, the man with a university
education is in honor bound to take an active part
in our political life, and to do his full duty as a
citizen by helping his fellow-citizens to the extent
of his power in the exercise of the rights of self-
government. He is bound to rank action far above
criticism, and to understand that the man deserving
of credit is the man who actually does the things,
even though imperfectly, and not the man who con-
fines himself to talking about how they ought to be
done. He is bound to have a high ideal and to strive
to realize it, and yet he must make up his mind
that he will never be able to get the highest good,
and that he must devote himself with all his energy
to getting the best that he can. Finally, his work
must be disinterested and honest, and it must be
given without r^ard to his own success or failure,
and without r^^rd to the effect it has upon his own
fortunes ; and while he must show the virtues of up-
rightness and tolerance and gentleness, he must also
show the sterner virtues of courage, resolution, and
hardihood, and the desire to war with merciless
effectiveness against the existence of wrong.

V
PHASES OF STATE LEGISLATION*

THE ALBANY LEGISLATURE

FEW persons realize the magnitude of the inter-
ests affected by State legislation in New York.
It is no mere figure of speech to call New York the
Empire State; and many of the laws most directly
and immediately affecting the interests of its citi-
zens are passed at Albany, and not at Washington.
In fact, there is at Albany a little home rule parlia-
ment which presides over the destinies of a com-
monwealth more populous than any one of two-
thirds of the kingdoms. of Europe, and one which,
in point of wealth, material prosperity, variety of
interests, extent of territory, and capacity for ex-
pansion, can fairly be said to rank next to the pow-
ers of the first class. This little parliament, com-
posed of one hundred and twenty-eight members in
the Assembly and thirty-two in the Senate, is, in
the fullest sense of the term, a representative body ;
there is hardly one of the many and widely diversi-
fied interests of the State that has not a mouthpiece
at Albany, and hardly a single class of its citizens
— ^not even excepting, I regret to say, the criminal
class — which lacks its representative among the leg-
islators. In the three Legislatures of which I have

♦The Century, January, 1885.
(78)

State Legislation 79

been a member, I have sat with bankers and brick-
layers, with merchants and mechanics, with lawj-ers,
farmers, day - laborers, saloon-keepers, clergjinen,
and prize-fighters. Among my colleagues there
were many very good men: there was a still more
numerous class of men who were neither \^ery
good nor verj* bad, but went one way or the other,
according to the strength of the N-arious conflicting
influences acting aroimd, behind, and upon them;
and, finally, there were many very bad men. Still,
the New York L^slature, taken as a whole, is
by no means as bad a body as we would be led to
believe if our judgment was based purely on what
we read in the great metropolitan papers; for the
custom of the latter is to portray things as either
very much better or very much worse than they are.
Where a nimiber of men, many of them poor, some
of them unscrupulous, and others elected by con-
stituents too ignorant to hold them to a proper ac-
countability for their actions, are put into a position
of great temporary power, where they are called to
take action upon questions affecting the welfare of
large corporations and wealthy private individuals,
the chances for corruption are always great; and
that there is much viciousness and political dis-
honesty, much moral cowardice, and a good deal
of actual bribe-taking in Albany, no one who has
had any practical experience of legislation can doubt ;
but, at the same time, I think that the good members
generally outnumber the bad, and that there is not
often doubt as to the result when a naked question

8c State Legislation

of right or wrong can be placed clearly and in its
troe light before the Legislature. The trouble is
that on many questi<xis the Legislature never docs
have the right and wrong clearly shown it Either
some bold, clever parliamentary tactician snaps Ac
measure through before the members are aware
of its nature, or dsc the obnoxious features are
so combined with good ones as to procure the sup-
port of a certain proportion of that large class
of men whose intentions are excellent, but whose in-
tellects are foggy. Or else the necessary party or-
ganization, which ive call the "machine," uses its
great power for some definite e\nl aim.

THE CHARACTER OF THE REPRESENTATIVES

The representatives from different sections of the
State differ widely in character. Those from the
country districts are generally very good men. They
are usually well-to-do farmers, small lawyers, or
prosperous storekeepers, and are shrewd, quiet, and
honest. They are often narrow-minded and slow to
receive an idea; but, on the other hand, when they
get a good one, they cling to it with the utmost
tenadty. They form very much the most valu-
able class of legislators. For the most part they
arc native Americans, and those who are not are
men who have become completely Americanized in
all their ways and habits of thought One of the
most useful members of the last Legislature was
a German from a western county, and the extent
of his Americanization can be judged from the fact

State Legislation 8i

that he was actually an ardent prohibitionist: cer-
tainly no one who knows Teutonic human nature
will require further proof. Again, I sat for an en-
tire session beside a very intelHgent member from
northern New York before I discovered that he \^^as
an Irishman : all his ^news of legislation, even upon
such subjects as free schools and the impropriety
of making appropriations from the treasury for the
support of sectarian institutions, were precisely sim-
ilar to those of his Protestant- American neighbors,
though he was himself a Catholic Now a German
or an Irishman from one of the great cities would
probably have retained many of his national pe-
culiarities.

It is from these same great cities that the worst
I^slators come It is true that there are always
among them a few culti\Tited and scholarly men
who are well educated, and who stand on a higher
and broader intellectual and moral plane than the
country members, but the bulk are very low indeed.
They are usually foreigners of little or no edu-
cation, with exceedingly misty ideas as to morality,
and possessed of an ignorance so profound that it
could only be called comic, were it not for the fact
that it has at times such serious effects upon our
laws. It is their ignorance, quite as much as actual
viciousness, which makes it so difficult to procure
the passage of good laws or prevent the passage of
bad ones ; and it is the most irritating of the many
elements with which we have to contend in the fight
for good government.

82 State Legislation

DARK SIDE OF THE LEGISLATIVE PICTURE

Mention has been made above of the bribe-
taking which undoubtedly at times occurs in the
New York Legislature. This is what is commonly-
called "a delicate subject" with which to deal,
and, therefore, according to our usual methods of
handling delicate subjects, it is either never dis-
cussed at all, or else discussed with the grossest
exaggeration; but most certainly there is nothing
about which it is more important to know the
truth.

In each of the last three Legislatures there were
a number of us who were interested in getting
through certain measures which we deemed to be
for the public good, but which were certain to be
strongly opposed, some for political and some for
pecuniary reasons. Now, to get through any such
measure requires genuine hard work, a certain
amount of parliamentary skill, a good deal of tact
and courage, and above all, a thorough knowledge
of the men with whom one has to deal, and of the
motives which actuate them. In other words, be-
fore taking any active steps, we had to "size up" our
fellow-legislators, to find out their past history and
present character and associates, to find out whether
they were their own masters or were acting under
the directions of somebody else, whether they were
bright or stupid, etc., etc. As a result,' and after
very careful study, conducted purely with the ob-
ject of learning the truth, so that we might work
more effectually, we came to the conclusion that

State Legislation 83

about a third of the members were open to corrupt
influences in some form or other ; in certain sessions
the proportion was greater, and in some less. Now
it would, of course, be impossible for me or for any
one else to prove in a court of law that these men
were guilty, except perhaps in two or three cases;
yet we felt absolutely confident that there was
hardly a case in which our judgment as to the hon-
esty of any given member was not correct The two
or three exceptional cases alluded to, where l^;al
proof of guilt might have been forthcoming, were
instances in which honest men were approached by
their colleagues at times when the need for votes
was very great; but, even then, it would have been
almost impossible to punish the offender before a
court, for it wotdd have merely resulted in his de-
nying what his accuser stated. Moreover, the mem-
bers who had been approached wotdd have been very
reluctant to come forward, for each of them felt
ashamed that his character should not have been
well enough known to prevent any one's daring
to speak to him on such a subject And another
reason why the few honest men who are approached
(for the lobbyist rarely makes a mistake in his es-
timate of the men who will be apt to take bribes) do
not fed like taking actiwi in the matter is that a
doubtful lawsuit will certainly follow, which will
drag on so long that the public will come to r^^rd
all of the participants wnth equal distrust, while in
the end the decision is quite as likely to be against
as to be for them. Take the Bradley-Sessicms case.

84 State Legislation

for example. This was an incident that occurred
at the time of the faction-fight in the Republican
ranks over the return of Mr. Conkling to the United
States Senate after his resignation from that body.
Bradley, an Assembl)rman, accused Sessions, a State
Senator, of attempting to bribe him. The affair
dragged on for an indefinite time; no one was able
actually to determine whether it was a case of black-
mail on the one hand, or of bribery on the other ; the
vast majority of people recollected the names of
both parties, but totally forgot which it was that
was supposed to have bribed the other, and regarded
both with equal disfavor; and the upshot has been
that the case is now merely remembered as illustrat-
ing one of the most unsavory phases of the once-
famous Half-breed-Stalwart fight.

DIFFICULTIES OF PREVENTING AND PUNISHING
CORRUPTION

From the causes indicated, it is almost impossible
to. actually convict a legislator of bribe-taking; but
at the same time, the character of a legislator, if
bad, soon becomes a matter of common notoriety,
and no dishonest legislator can long keep his repu-
tation good with honest men. If the constituents
wish to know the character of their member, they
can easily find it out, and no member will be dis-
honest if he thinks his constituents are looking at
him; he presumes upon their ignorance or indif-
ference. I do not see how bribe-taking among leg-
islators can be stopped until the public conscience

State Legislation 85

becomes awake to the matter. Then it will stop
fast enough; for just as soon as politicians realize
that the people are in earnest in wanting a thing
done, they make haste to do it. The trouble is
always in rousing -the people sufficiently to make
them take an effective interest, — ^that is, in making
them sufficiently in earnest to be willing to give
a little of their time to the accomplishment of the
object they have in view.

Much the largest percentage of corrupt legislators
come from the great cities ; indeed, the majority of
the Assemblymen from the great cities are "very
poor specimens" indeed, while, on the contrary,
the Congressmen who go from them are generally
pretty good men. This fact is only one of the many
which go to establish the curious political law that
in a great city the larger the constituency which
elects a public servant, the more apt that servant is
to be a good one; exactly as the Mayor is almost
certain to be infinitely superior in character to the
average alderman, or the average city judge to the
average civil justice. This is because the public
servants of comparatively small importance are
protected by their own insignificance from the
consequences of their bad actions. Life is carried
on at such a high pressure in the great cities, men's
time is so fully occupied by their manifold and ha-
rassing interests and duties, and their knowledge of
their neighbors is necessarily so limited, that they
are only able to fix in their minds the characters
and records of a few prominent men; the others

86 State Legislation

they tump together without distinguishing between
individuals. They know whether the aldermen, as
a body, are to be admired or despised; but they
probably do not even know the name, far less the
worth, of the particular alderman who represents
their district; so it happens that their votes for al-
dermen or Assemblymen are generally given with
very little intelligence indeed, while, on the con-
trary, they are fully competent to pass and execute
judgment upon as prominent an official as a Mayor
or even a Congressman. Hence it follows that the
latter have to give a good deal of attention to the
wishes and prejudices of the public at large, while
a city Assemblyman, though he always talks a great
deal about the people, rarely, except in certain ex-
traordinary cases, has to pay much heed to their
wants. His political future depends far more upon
the skill and success with which he cultivates the
gOod-will of certain "bosses," or of certain cliques
of politicians, or even of certain bodies and knots
of men (such as compose a trade-union, or a col-
lection of merchants in some special business, or
the managers of a railroad) whose interests, being
vitally affected by Albany legislation, oblige them
closely to watch, and to try to punish or reward,
the Albany legislators. These politicians or sets of
interested individuals generally care very little for
a man's honesty so long as he can be depended upon
to do as they wish on certain occasions ; and hence
it often happens that a dishonest man who has sense
enough not to excite attention by any flagrant out-

State Legislation 87

rage may continue for a number of years to repre-
sent an honest constituency.

THE CONSTITUENTS LARGELY TO BLAME

Moreover, a member from a large city can often
count upon the educated and intelligent men of his
district showing the most gross ignorance and stu-
pidity in political affairs. The much-lauded intelli-
gent voter — the man of cultured mind, liberal edu-
cation, and excellent intentions — at times performs
exceedingly queer antics.

The great public meetings to advance certain po-
litical movements irrespective of party, which have
been held so frequently during the past few years,
have undoubtedly done a vast amount of good ; but
the very men who attend these public meetings and
inveigh against the folly and wickedness of the poli-
ticians will sometimes on election day do things
which have quite as evil effects as any of the acts
of the men whom they very properly condemn. A
recent instance of this is worth giving. In 1882
there was in the Assembly a young member from
New York, who did as hard and effective work for
the City of New York as has ever been done by
any one. It was a peculiarly disagreeable year to be
in the Legislature. The composition of that body
was unusually bad. The more disreputable politi-
cians relied upon it to pass some of their schemes
and to protect certain of their members from the
consequences of their own misdeeds. Demagogic
measures were continually brought forward, nomi-

88 State Legislation

nally in the interests of the laboring classes, for
which an honest and intelligent man could not vote,
and yet which were jealously watched by, and re-
ceived the hearty support of, not merely demagogues
and agitators, but also a large number of per-
fectly honest though misguided workingmen. And,
finally, certain wealthy corporations attempted, by
the most unscrupulous means, to rush through a
number of laws in their own interest. The young
member of whom we are speaking incurred by his
course on these various measures the bitter hos-
tility alike of the politicians, the demagogues, and
the members of that most dangerous of all classes,
the wealthy criminal class. He had also earned the
gratitude of all honest citizens, and he got it — as far
as words went. The better class of newspapers
spoke well of him; cultured and intelligent men
generally — ^the well-to-do, prosperous people who
belong to the different social and literary clubs, and
their followers — were loud in his praise. I call to
mind one man who lived in his district who ex-
pressed great indignation that the politicians should
dare to oppose his re-election ; when told that it was
to be hoped he would help to ensure the legislator's
return to Albany by himself staying at the polls
all day, he answered that he was very sorry, but
he unfortunately had an engagement to go quail-
shooting on election day! Most respectable people,
however, would undoubtedly have voted for and
re-elected the young member had it not been for the
unexpected political movements that took place in

State Legislation 89

the fall. A citizen's ticket, largely non-partisan in
character, was run for certain local offices, receiving
its support from among those who claimed to be,
and who undoubtedly were, the best men of both
parties. The ticket contained the names of candi-
dates only for municipal offices, and had nothing
whatever to do with the election of men to the Leg-
islature; yet it proved absolutely impossible to drill
this simple fact through the heads of a great many
worthy people, who, when election day came round,
declined to vote anything but the citizens' ticket,
and persisted in thinking that if no legislative can-
didate was on the ticket, it was because, for some
reason or other, the citizens' committee did not con-
sider any legislative candidate worth voting for. All
over the city the better class of candidates for legis-
lative offices lost from this cause votes which they
had a right to expect, and in the particular district
under consideration the loss was so great as to
cause the defeat of the sitting member, or rather
to elect him by so narrow a vote as to enable an
unscrupulously partisan legislative majority to keep
him out of his seat.

It is this kind of ignorance of the simplest po-
litical matters among really good citizens, combined
with their timidity, which is so apt to characterize
a wealthy bourgeoisie, and, with their short-sighted
selfishness in being unwilling to take the smallest
portion of time away from their business or pleas-
ure to devote to public affairs, which renders it
so easy for corrupt men from the city to keep

90 State Legislation

their places in the Legislature. In the country the
case is different. Here the constituencies, who are
usually composed of honest though narrow-minded
and bigoted individuals, generally keep a pretty
sharp lookout on their members, and, as already
said, the latter are apt to be fairly honest men.
Even when they are not honest, they take good
care to act perfectly well as regards all district
matters, for most of the measures about which cor-
rupt influences are at work relate to city affairs.
The constituents of a country member know well
how to judge him for those of his acts which im-
mediately affect themselves; but as regards others
they often have no means of forming an opinion,
except through the newspapers, — more especially
through the great metropolitan newspapers, — and
they have gradually come to look upon all state-
ments made by the latter with reference to the
honesty or dishonesty of public men with extreme
distrust. This is because our newspapers, includ-
ing those who professedly stand as representatives
of the. highest culture of the community, have been
in the habit of making such constant and reckless
assaults upon the characters of even very good
public men, as to greatly detract from their in-
fluence when they attack one who is really bad.
They paint every one with whom they disagree
black. As a consequence the average man, who
knows they are partly wrong, thinks they may also
be partly right; he concludes that no man is abso-
lutely white, and at the same time that no one

State Legislation 91

is as black as he is painted; and takes refuge in
the belief that all alike are gray. It then becomes
impossible to rouse him to make an effort either
for a good man or against a scoundrel. Nothing
helps dishonest politicians as much as this feeling;
and among the chief instruments in its production
we must number certain of our newspapers who are
loudest in asserting that they stand on the highest
moral plane. As for the other newspapers, those
of frankly "sensational"^ character, such as the two
which at present claim to have the largest circula-
tion in New York, there is small need to character-
ize them; they form a very great promotive to
public corruption and private vice, and are on the
whole the most potent of all the forces for evil
which are at work in the city.

PERILS OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE

However, there can be no question that a great
many men do deteriorate very much morally when
they go to Albany. The last accusation most of us
would think of bringing against that dear, dull,
old Dutch city is that of being a fast place; and
yet there are plenty of members coming from out-
of-the-way villages or quiet country towns on whom
Albany has as bad an effect as Paris sometimes
has on wealthy young Americans from the great
seaboard cities. Many men go to the Legislature
with the set purpose of making money; but many
others, who afterward become bad, go there in-
tending to do good work. These latter may be

^ State Lcgblatkxi

wt^ymezx^Bg^ weak jocng fefjovrs of some shallow
brigiftness. who esqiect to make names tor tfaem-
9thrt:§; perhaps they are joocg lawyers, or real-
estate brokers^ or small shopkeepers: they achieve
tmt little success; they gradually beoome oooscioiis
that their business is broken up, and that they have
not enough abtlity to warrant any expectation of
their continuing in public life: some great tempta-
tion comes in their way fa corporation which as-
pects to be relieved of perhaps a million dollars
of taxes by the passage of a bill can afford to pay
high for voters) ; they fall, and that is the end of
thenL Indeed, legislative life has temptations enough
to make it unad\'isable for any weak man, whether
young or old, to enter it.

ALLIES OF VICIOUS LEGISLATORS

The array of vicious l^slators is swelled by
a number of men who really at bottom are not
bad. Foremost among these are those most hope-
less of beings who are handicapped by having
some measure which they consider it absolutely
necessary for the sake of their own future to "get
through/* One of these men will have a bill, for
instance, appropriating a sum of money from the
State Treasury to clear out a river, dam the out-
let of a lake, or drain a marsh ; it may be, although
not usually so, proper enough in itself, but it is
drawn up primarily in the interest of a certain
set of his constituents who have given him clearly
to understand that his continuance in their good

State Legislation g^

graces depends upon his success in passing the
bill. He feels that he must get it through at all
hazards; the bad men find this out, and tell him
he must count on their opposition unless he con-
sents also to help their measures ; he resists at first
but sooner or later yields; and from that moment
his fate is sealed, — so far as his ability to do any
work of general good is concerned.

A still larger number of men are good enough
in themselves, but are "owned** by third parties.
Usually the latter are politicians who have absolute
control of the district machines, or who are, at
least, of very great importance in the political af-
fairs of their district. A curious fact is that they
are not invariably, though usually, of the same
party as the member ; for in some places, especially
in the lower portions of the great cities, politics
become purely a business, and in the squabbles for
offices of emolument it becomes important for a
local leader to have supporters among all the fac-
tions. When one of these supporters is sent to a
legislative body, he is allowed to s^ct with the rest
of his party on what his chief regards as the un-
important questions of party or public interest, but
he has to come in to heel at once when any matter
arises touching the said chiefs power, pocket, or
influence.

Other members will be controlled by some wealthy
private citizen who is not in politics, but who has
business interests likely to be affected by legisla-
tion, and who is, therefore, willing to subscribe

94 State Legislation

heavily to the campaign expenses of an individual
or of an association so as to ensure the presence
in Albany of some one who will give him informa-
tion and assistance.

On one occasion there came before a committee
of which I happened to be a member, a perfectly
proper bill in the interest of a certain corporation;
the majority of the committee, six in number, were
thoroughly bad men, who opposed the measure
with the hope of being paid to cease their oppo-
sition. When I consented to take charge of the
bill, I had stipulated that not a penny should be
paid to ensure its passage. It therefore became
necessary to see what pressure could be brought to
bear on the recalcitrant members ; and, accordingly,
we had to find out who were the authors and spon-
sors of their political being. Three proved to be
under the control of local statesmen of the same
party as themselves, and of equally bad moral char-
acter; one was ruled by a politician of unsavory
reputation from a different city ; the fifth, a Demo-
crat, was owned by a Republican Federal official;
and the sixth by the president of a horse-car com-
pany. A couple of letters from these two mag-
nates forced the last members mentioned to change
front on the bill with surprising alacrity.

Nowadays, however, the greatest danger is that
the member will be a servile tool of the "boss" or
"machine" of his own party, in which case he can
very rarely indeed be a good public servant.

There are two classes of cases in which corrupt

State Legislation 9s

members get money. One is when a wealthy cor-
poration buys through some measure which will be
of great benefit to itself, although, perhaps an in-
jury to the public at large; the other is when a
member introduces a bill hostile to some moneyed
interest, with the expectation of being paid to let
the matter drop. The latter, technically called a
"strike," is much the most common ; for, in spite of
the outcry against them in legislative matters, cor-
porations are more often sinned against than sin-
ning. It is difficult, for reasons already given, in
either case to convict the offending member, though
we have very good laws against bribery. The re-
form has got to come from the people at large.
It will be hard to make any very great improvement
in the character of the legislators^ until respectable
people become more fully awake to their duties,
and until the newspapers become more truthful and
less reckless in their statements.

It is not a pleasant task to have to draw one side
of legislative life in such dark colors; but as the
side exists, and as the dark lines never can be
rubbed out until we have manfully acknowledged
that they are there and need rubbing out, it seems
the falsest of false delicacy to refrain from dwell-
ing upon them. But it would be most unjust to ac-
cept this partial truth as being the whole truth. We
blame the Legislature for many evils, the ultimate
cause for whose existence is to be found in our own
shortcomings.

^ State Lcgislatkn

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE

There is a macfa brigfater side to tise pictnTe^ and
this is the larger side, too. It woaM be impossiUe
to get together a body oi more earnest, nprigfat. and
disinterested men than the band of legislators,
largdy yoong men^ who dnring the past three years
hare averted so much evil and accomplished so
much good at Albany. They were able, at least
partially, to pot into actual practice the theories
that had long been taught by the intellectual leaders
of the country. And the life of a legislator who is
earnest in his efforts faithfuUy to perform his duty
as a public servant, is harassing and laborious to
the last degree. He is kept at work from eight to
fourteen hours a day; he is obhged to incur the
bitterest hostility of a body of men as powerful
as they are unscrupulous, who are always on the
watch to find out, or to make out an3rthing in his
private or his public life which can be used against
him; and he has on his side either a but partially
roused public opinion, or else a public opinion roused,
it is true, but only blindly conscious of the evil from
which it suffers, and alike ignorant and unwilling
to avail itself of the proper remedy.

This body of legislators, who, at any rate, worked
honestly for what they thought right, were, as a
whole, quite unselfish, and were not treated par-
ticularly well by their constituents. Most of them
soon got to realize the fact that if they wished to
enjoy their brief space of political life (and most
though not all of them did enjoy it) they would

State Legislation 97

have to make it a rule never to consider, in decid-
ing how to vote upon any question, how their vote
would affect their own political prospects. No man
can do good service in the Legislature as long as he
is worrying over the effect of his actions upon his
own future. After having learned this, most of
them got on very happily indeed. As a rule, and
where no matter of vital principle is involved, a
member is bound to represent the views of those
who have elected him ; but there are times when the
voice of the people is anything but the voice of God,
and then a conscientious man is equally bound to
disregard it.

In the long run, and on the average, the public
will usually do justice to its representatives ; but it
is a very rough,^ uneven, and long-delayed justice.
That is, judging from what I have myself seen of
the way in which members were treated by their
constituents, I should say that the chances of an
honest man being retained in public life were about
ten per cent better than if he were dishonest, other
things being equal. This is not a showing very
creditable to us as a people; and the explanation
is to be found in the shortcomings peculiar to the
different classes of our honest and respectable voters,
— shortcomings which may be briefly outlined.

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD
TAKE PART IN POLITICAL WORK

The people of means in all great cities have in

times past shamefully neglected their political duties,
5 Vol. L

98 State Legislation

and have been contemptuously disregarded by the
professional politicians in consequence. A number
of them will get together in a large hall, will vocif-
erously demand "reform," as if it were some con-
crete substance which could be handed out to them
in slices, and will then disband with a feeling of the
most serene self-satisfaction, and the belief that
they have done their entire duty as citizens and
members of the community. It is an actual fact
that four out of five of our wealthy and educated
men, of those who occupy what is called good so-
cial position, are really ignorant of the nature of
a caucus or a primary meeting, and never attend
either. Now, under our form of government, no
man can accomplish anything by himself; he must
work in combination with others; and the men of
whom we are speaking will never carry their proper
weight in the political affairs of the country until
they have formed themselves into some organiza-
tion, or else, which would be better, have joined
some of the organizations already existing. But
there seems often to be a certain lack of the robuster
virtues in our educated men, which makes them
shrink from the struggle and the inevitable contact
with rough politicians (who must often be rudely
handled before they can be forced to behave) ; while
their lack of familiarity with their surroundings
causes them to lack discrimination between the poli-
ticians who are decent, and those who are not; for
in their eyes the two classes, both equally unfamil-
iar, are indistinguishable. Another reason why this

State Legislation gg

class is not of more consequence in politics, is that
it is often really out of sympathy— or, at least, its
more conspicuous members are — ^with the feelings
and interests of the great mass of the American
people; and it is a discreditable fact that it is in
this class that what has been most aptly termed the
"colonial" spirit still survives. Until this survival
of the spirit of colonial dependence is dead, those in
whom it exists will serve chiefly as laughing-stocks
to the shrewd, humorous, and prejudiced people who
form nine-tenths of our body politic, and whose
chief characteristics are their intensely American
habits of thought, and their surly intolerance of any-
thing like subservience to outside and foreign influ-
ences.

From different causes, the laboring classes, even
when thoroughly honest at heart, often fail to ap-
preciate honesty in their representatives. They are
frequently not well informed in regard to the char-
acter of the latter, and they are apt to be led aside
by the loud professions of the so-called labor reform-
ers, who are always promising to procure by legis-
lation the advantages which can only come to work-
ing men, or to any other men, by their individual
or united energy, intelligence, and forethought.
Very much has been accomplished by legislation for
laboring men, by procuring mechanics' Hen laws,
factory laws, etc. ; and hence it often comes that they
think legislation can accomplish all things for them ;
and it is only natural, for instance, that a certain
proportion of their number should adhere to the

loo State Legislation

demagogue who votes for a law to double the rate
of wages, rather than to the honest man who op-
poses it. When people are struggling for the neces-
saries of existence, and vaguely feel, no matter how
wrongly, that they are also struggling against an
unjustly ordered system of life, it is hard to con-
vince them of the truth that an ounce of perform-
ance on their own part is worth a ton of legislative
promises to change in some mysterious manner that
life-system.

In the country districts justice to a member is
somewhat more apt to be done. When, as is so
often the case, it is not done, the cause is usually to
be sought for in the numerous petty jealousies and
local rivalries which are certain to exist in any small
community whose interests are narrow and most
of whose members are acquainted with each other;
and besides this, our country vote is essentially a
Bourbon or Tory vote, being very slow to receive
new ideas, very tenacious of old ones, and hence
inclined to look with suspicion upon any one who
tries to shape his course according to some standard
differing from that which is already in existence.

The actual work of procuring the passage of a bill
through the Legislature is in itself far from slight.
The hostility of the actively bad has to be discounted
in advance, and the indifference of the passive ma-
jority, who are neither very good nor very bad, has
to be overcome. This can usually be accomplished
only by stirring up their constituencies ; and so, be-
sides the constant watchfulness over the course of

State Legislation loi

the measure through both houses and the continual
debating and parliamentary fencing which is neces-
sary, it is also indispensable to get the people of dis-
tricts not directly affected by the bill alive to its
importance, so as to induce their representatives to
vote for it. Thus, when the bill to establish a State
Park at Niagara was on its passage, it was found
that the great majority of the country members were
opposed to it, fearing that it might conceal some
land- jobbing scheme, and also fearing that their con-
stituents, whose vice is not extravagance, would not
countenance so great an expenditure of public
money. It was of no use arguing with the mem-
bers, and instead the country newspapers were
flooded with letters, pamphlets were circulated, vis-
its and personal appeals were made, until a sufficient
number of these members changed front to enable
us to get the lacking votes.

LIFE IN THE LEGISLATURE

As already said, some of us who usually acted
together took a great deal of genuine enjoyment
out of our experience at Albany. We liked the ex-
citement and perpetual conflict, the necessity for
putting forth all our powers to reach our ends, and
the feeling that we were really being of some use
in the world; and if we were often both saddened
and angered by the viciousness and ignorance of
some of our colleagues, yet, in return, the latter
many times unwittingly furnished us a good deal
of amusement by their preposterous actions and

I02 Sutc Legislation

speeches. Some of these are worth repeating, thoagh
they can never, in repetition, seem what they were
when they occurred- The names and drctmistances,
of course, have been so changed as to prevent the
possibility of the real heroes of them being recog-
nized It must be understood that they stand for
the excq>tional and not the ordinary workings of the
average legislative intellect I have heard more
sound sense than foolishness talked in Albany, but
lo record the former would only bore the reader.
And we must bear in mind that, while the ignorance
of some of our representatives warrants our sajring
that they should not be in the Legislature, it does
not at all warrant otu" condemning the system of
government which permits them to be sent there.
There is no system so good that it has not some
disadvantages. The only way to teach our foreign-
bom fellow-citizens how to govern themselves, is to
give each the full rights possessed by other Ameri-
can citizens ; and it is not to be wondered at if they
at first show themselves unskilful in the exercise
of these rights. It has been my experience, more-
over, in the Legislature that when Hans or Paddy
does turn out really well, there are very few native
Americans indeed who do better. A very large
number of the ablest and most disinterested and
public-spirited citizens in New York are by birth
Germans ; and their names are towers of strength in
the community. When I had to name a committee
which was to do the most difficult, dangerous, and
important work that came before the Legislature at

State Legislation 103

all during my presence in it, I chose three of my
four colleagues from among those of my fellow-
legislators who were Irish either by birth. or descent.
One of the warmest and most disinterested friends
I have ever had or hope to have in New York poli-
tics, is by birth an Irishman, and is also as genuine
and good an American citizen as is to be found
within the United States.

A good many of the Yankees in the house would
blunder time and again; but their blunders were
generally merely stupid and not at all amusing,
while, on the contrary, the errors of those who were
of Milesian extraction always possessed a most re-
freshing originality.

INCIDENTS OF LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE

In 1882, the Democrats in the House had a clear
majority, but were for a long time unable to effect
an organization, owing to a faction-fight in their
own ranks between the Tammany and anti-Tam-
many members, each side claiming the lion's share
of the spoils. After a good deal of bickering, the
anti-Tammany men drew up a paper containing a
series of propositions, and submitted it to their op-
ponents, with the prefatory remark, in writing, that
it was an ultimatum. The Tammany members were
at once summoned to an indignation meeting, their
feelings closely resembling those of the famous
fish-wife who was called a parallelopipedon. None
of them had any very accurate idea as to what the
word ultimatum meant; but that it was intensely

I04 State Legislation

offensive, not to say abusive, in its nature, they did
not question for a moment. It was felt that some
equivalent and equally strong term by which to call
Tammany's proposed counter-address must be found
immediately: but as the Latin vocabulary of the
members was limited, it was some time before a
suitable term was forthcoming. Finally, by a happy
inspiration, some gentleman of classical education
remembered the phrase ipse dixit; it was at once felt
to be the very phrase required by the peculiar exi-
gencies of the case, and next day the reply appeared,
setting forth with well-satisfied gravity that, in re-
sponse to the County Democrac/s 'Uiltimatum/'
Tammany herewith produced her *Upse dixit"

Public servants of higher grade than aldermen or
Assemblymen sometimes give words a wider mean-
ing than would be found in the dictionary. In many
parts of the United States, owing to a curious series
of historical associations (which, by the way, it
would be interesting to trace), anything foreign and
un-English is called "Dutch," and it was in this
sense that a member of a recent Congress used the
term when, in speaking in favor of a tariff on works
of art, he told of the reluctance with which he saw
the productions of native artists exposed to compe-
tition "with Dutch daubs from Italy"; a sentence
pleasing alike from its alliteration and from its bold
disregard of geographic trivialities.

Often an orator of this sort will have his atten-
tion attracted by some high-sounding word, which
he has not before seen, and which he treasures up

State Legislation 105

to use in his next rhetorical flight, without regard
to the exact meaning. There was a laboring man's
advocate in the last Legislature, one of whose efforts
attracted a good deal of attention from his magnifi-
cent heedlessness of technical accuracy in the use of
similes. He was speaking against the convict con-
tract-labor system, and wound up an already suffi-
ciently remarkable oration with the still more start-
ling ending that the system "was a vital cobra which
was swamping the lives of the laboring men.'* Now,
he had evidently carefully put together the sentence
beforehand, and the process of mental synthesis by
which he built it up must have been curious. "Vi-
tar* was, of course, used merely as an adjective of
intensity; he was a little uncertain in his ideas as
to what a "cobra" was, but took it for granted that
it was some terrible manifestation of nature, pos-
sibly hostile to man, like a volcano, or a cyclone, or
Niagara, for instance ; then "swamping" was chosen
as describing an operation very likely to be per-
formed by Niagara, or a cyclone, or a cobra; and
behold, the sentence was complete.

Sometimes a common phrase will be given a new
meaning. Thus, the mass of legislation is strictly
local in its character. Over a thousand bills come up
for consideration in the course of a session, but a
very few of which affect the interests of the State at
large. The latter and the more important privater
bills are, or ought to be, carefully studied by each
member ; but it is a physical impossibility for any one
man to examine the countless local bills of small im-

io6 State Legislation

portance. For these we have to trust to the member
for the district affected, and when one ccmies up the
response to any inquiry about it is usually, "Oh, it's
a local bill, affecting So-and-so's district; he is re-
sponsible for it." By degrees, some of the members
get to use "local" in the sense of unimportant, and a
few of the Assemblymen of doubtful honesty gradu-
ally come to regard it as meaning a bill of no pecu-
niary interest to themselves. There was a smug lit-
tle rascal in one of the last Legislatures, who might
have come out of one of Lever's novels. He was un-
doubtedly a bad case, but had a genuine sense of
humor, and his "bulls" made him the delight of the
house. One day I came in late, just as a bill was
being voted on, and meeting my friend, hailed him,
"Hello, Pat, what's up? what's this they're voting
on ?" to which Pat replied, with contemptuous indif-
ference to the subject, but with a sly twinkle in his
eye, "Oh, some unimportant measure, sorr ; some lo-
cal bill or other — a constitutional amendment!"

The old Dublin Parliament never listened to a
better specimen of a bull than was contained in the
speech of a very genial and pleasant friend of mine,
a really finished orator, who, in the excitement at-
tendant upon receiving Governor Qeveland's mes-
sage vetoing the five-cent-fare bill, uttered the fol-
lowing sentence : "Mr. Speaker, I recognize the hand
that crops out in that veto; / have heard it before!"

One member rather astonished us one day by his
use of the word "shibboleth." He had evidently
concluded that this was merely a more elegant

State Legislation 107

synonym of the good old word shillalah, and in re-
proving a colleague for opposing a bill to increase
the salaries of public laborers, he said, very impres-
sively, "The throuble wid the young man is, that
he uses the wurrd economy as a shibboleth, where-
with to strike the working man." Afterward he
changed the metaphor, and spoke of a number of us
as using the word "reform" as a shibboleth, behind
which to cloak our evil intentions.

A mixture of classical and constitutional misin-
formation was displayed a few sessions past in the
State Assembly when I was a member of the Legis-
lature. It was on the occasion of that annual nui-
sance, the debate upon the Catholic Protectory item
of the Supply Bill. Every year some one who is de-
sirous of bidding for the Catholic vote introduces
this bill, which appropriates a sum of varying dimen-
sions for the support of the Catholic Protectory, an
excellent institution, but one which has no right
whatever to come to the State for support ; each year
the insertion of the item is opposed by a small num-
ber of men, including the more liberal Catholics
themselves, on proper grounds, and by a larger
number from simple bigotry — a fact which was
shown two years ago, when many of the most bitter
opponents of this measure cheerfully supported a
similar and equally objectionable one in aid of a
Protestant institution. On the occasion referred to
there were two Assemblymen, both Celtic gentle-
men, who were rivals for the leadership of the mi-
nority ; one of them a stout, red-faced man, who may

io8 State Legislation

go by the name of the "Colonel/* owing to his hav-
ing seen service in the army ; while the other was a
dapper, voluble fellow, who had at one time been a
civil justice and was called the ** Judge.*' Somebody
was opposing the insertion of the item on the ground
(perfectly just, by the way) that it was unconsti-
tutional and he dwelt upon this objection at some
length. The Judge, who knew nothing of the Con-
stitution, except that it was continually being quoted
against all of his favorite projects, fidgeted about
for some time, and at last jumped up to know if he
might ask the gentleman a question. The latter said,
"Yes,'' and the Judge went on, "I'd like to know if
the gintleman has ever personally seen the Catholic
Protectoree?" "No, I haven't," said his astonished
opponent. "Then, phwat do you mane by talking
about its being unconstitootional. It's no more un-
constitootional than you are !" Then, turning to the
house, with slow and withering sarcasm, he added,
"The throuble wid the gintleman is that he okkipies
what lawyers would call a kind of a quasi-position
upon this bill," and sat down amid the applause of
his followers.

His rival, the Colonel, felt he had gained alto-
gether too much glory from the encounter, and after
the nonplussed countryman had taken his seat, he
stalked solemnly over to the desk of the elated Judge,
looked at him majestically for a moment, and said,
"You'll excuse my mentioning, sorr, that the gin-
tleman who has just sat down knows more law in
a wake than you do in a month ; and more than that,

State Legislation 109

Mike Shaunnessy, phwat do you mane by quotin*
Latin on the flure of this House, when you don't
know the alpha and omayga of the language!"' and
back he walked, leaving the Judge in humiliated
submission behind him.

The Judge was always falling foul of the Consti-
tution. Once, when defending one of his bills which
made a small but wholly indefensible appropriation
of State money for a private purpose, he asserted
"that the Constitution didn't touch little things like
that'*; and on another occasion he remarked to me
that he "never allowed the Constitution to come
between friends."

The Colonel was at that time chairman of a com-
mittee, before which there sometimes came questions
affecting the interests or supposed interests of labor.
The committee was hopelessly bad in its composi-
tion, most of the members being either very corrupt
or exceedingly inefficient. The Colonel generally
kept order with a good deal of dignity; indeed,
when, as not infrequently happened, he had looked
upon the rye that was flavored with lemon-peel, his
sense of personal dignity grew till it became fairly
majestic, and he ruled the committee with a rod of
iron. At one time a bill had been introduced (one
of the several score of preposterous measures that
annually make their appearance purely for purposes
of buncombe), by whose terms all laborers on the
public works of great cities were to receive three dol-
lars a day— double the market price of labor. To
this bill, by the way, an amendment was afterward

no State Legislation

offered in the house by some gentleman with a
sense of humor, which was to make it read that all
the inhabitants of great cities were to receive three
dollars a day, and the privilege of laboring on the
public works if they chose; the original author of the
bill questioning doubtfully if the amendment "didn't
make the measure too sweeping/' The measure was,
of course, of no consequence whatever to the genuine
laboring men, but was of interest to the professional
labor agitators; and a body of the latter requested
leave to appear before the committee. This was
granted, but on the appointed day the chairman
turned up in a condition of such portentous dignity
as to make it evident that he had been on a spree of
protracted duration. Down he sat at the head of the
table, and glared at the committeemen, while the lat-
ter, whose faces would not have looked amiss in a
rogues' gallery, cowered before him. The first
speaker was a typical professional laboring man; a
sleek, oily little fellow, with a black mustache, who
had never done a stroke of work in his life. He
felt confident that the Colonel would favor him, — a
confidence soon to be rudely shaken, — and began
with a deprecatory smile:

"Humble though I am—"

Rap, rap, went the chairman's gavel, and the fol-
lowing dialogue occurred:

Chairman (with dignity). "What's that you said
you were, sir?"

Professional Workingman (decidedly taken
aback). "I — ^I said I was humble, sir."

State Legislation iii

Chairman (reproachfully). "Are you an Ameri-
can citizen, sir?"

P. W. "Yes, sir/'

Chairman (with emphasis). "Then you're the
equal of any man in this State! Then you're the
equal of any man on this committee! DonU let me
hear you call yourself humble again! Go on, sirT

After this warning the advocate managed to keep
clear of the rocks until, having worked himself up
to quite a pitch of excitement, he incautiously ex-
claimed, "But the poor man has no friends!" which
brought the Colonel down on him at once. Rap, rap,
went his gavel, and he scowled grimly at the oflfender
while he asked with deadly deliberation:

"What did you say that time, sir?"

P. W. (hopelessly). "I said the poor man had no
friends, sir."

Chairman (with sudden fire). "Then you lied,
sir! I am the poor man's friend! so are my col-
leagues, sir!" (Here the rogues' gallery tried to
look benevolent.) "Speak the truth, sir!" (with
sudden change from the manner admonitory to the
manner mandatory). "Now, you sit down quick,
or get out of this somehow !"

This put an end to the sleek gentleman, and his
place was taken by a fellow-professional of another
type — a great, burly man, who would talk to you on
private matters in a perfectly natural tone of voice,
but who, the minute he began to speak of the Wrongs
(with a capital W) of Labor (with a capital L),
bellowed as if he had been a bull of Bashan. The

112 State Legislatioa

Colond, by this time pretty far gone, eyed him
malevolently, swaying to and fro in his diair. How-
ever, the first effect of the fellow's oratory was
soothing rather than otherwise, and produced the
unexpected result of sending the chairman fast
asleep sitting bolt upright. But in a minute or
two, as the man warmed up to his work, he gave
a peculiarly resonant howl which waked the Colond
up. The latter came to himself with a jerk, looked
fixedly at the audience, caught sight of the speaker,
remembered having seen him before, forgot that he
had been asleep, and concluded that it must have
been on some previous day. Hammer, hammer,
went the gavel, and —

"Fve seen you before, sir!"

"You have not," said the man.

*'Don't tell me I lie, sir!" responded the Colond,
with sudden ferodty. **YouVe addressed this com-
mittee on a previous day!"

"Fve never — " b^an the man; but the Colond
broke in again:

''Sit down, sir! The dignity of the chair must
be preserved! No man shall speak to this com-
mittee twice. The committee stands adjourned."
And with that he stalked majestically out of the
room, leaving the committee and the del^^tion to
gaze sheepishly into each other's faces.

OUTSIDERS
After all, outsiders furnish quite as much fun
as the legislators themselves. The number of men

State Legislation 113

who persist in writing one letters of praise, abuse,
and advice on every conceivable subject is appalling ;
and the writers are of every grade, from the lunatic
and the criminal up. The most difficult to deal with
are the men with hobbies. There is the Protestant
fool, who thinks that our liberties are menaced by
the machinations of the Church of Rome; and his
companion idiot, who wants legislation against all
secret societies, especially the Masons. Then there
are the believers in "isms" of whom the women-
suffragists stand in the first rank. Now I have al-
ways been a believer in woman's rights, but I must
confess I have never seen such a hopelessly imprac-
ticable set of persons as the woman-suffragists who
came up to Albany to get l^slation. They simply
would not draw up their measures in proper form ;
when I pointed out to one of them that their pro-
posed bill was drawn up in direct defiance of certain
of the sections of the Constitution of the State he
blandly replied that he did not care at all for that,
because the measure had been drawn up so as to be
in accord with the Constitution of Heaven. There
was no answer to this beyond the very obvious one
that Albany was in no way akin to Heaven. The
ultra-temperance people — not the moderate and sen-
sible ones — are quite as impervious to common-sense.
A member's correspondence is sometimes amus-
ing. A member receives shoals of letters of advice,
congratulation, entreaty, and abuse, half of them
anonymous. Most of these are stupid; but some
are at least out of the common.

114 State Legislation

I had some constant correspondents. One lady
in the western part of the State wrote me a wedcly
disquisition on woman's rights. A Buffalo clergy-
man spent two years on a one-sided correspondence
about prohibition. A gentleman of Syracuse wrote
me such a stream of essays and requests about the
charter of that city that I feared he would drive me
into a lunatic asylum ; but he anticipated matters by
going into one himself. A New Yorker at regular
intervals sent up a request that I would "reintro-
duce" the Dongan charter, which had lapsed two
centuries before. A gentleman interested in a pro-
posed law to protect primaries took to telegraphing
daily questions as to its progress — a habit of which
I broke him by sending in response telegrams of
several hundred words each, which I was careful
not to prepay.

There are certain legislative actions which must
be taken in a purely Pickwickian sense. Notable
among these are the resolutions of sympathy
for the alleged oppressed patriots and peoples of
Europe. These are generally directed against
England, as there exists in the lower strata
of political life an Anglophobia quite as objec-
tionable as the Anglomania of the higher social
circles.

As a rule, these resolutions are to be classed as
simply bouife affairs ; they are commonly introduced
by some ambitious legislator — often, I regret to say,
a native American — ^who has a large foreign vote in
his district. During my term of service in the Legis-

hi.'4U J/4 ;/i:l,jlj';iJ ; I /,

iatL'.-t • *rs',» • •.' * J ' f • ! » . 1 • I

ii6 State Legislation

on any conceivable subject, he herewith returned
them their kind communication.*

In concluding I would say, that while there is so
much evil at Albany, and so much reason for our
exerting ourselves to bring about a better state of
things, yet there is no cause for being disheartened
or for thinking that it is hopeless to expect improve-
ment. On the contrary, the standard of legislative
morals is certainly higher than it was fifteen years
ago or twenty-five years ago. In the future it
may either improve or retrograde, by fits and starts,
for it will keep pace exactly with the awakening of
the popular mind to the necessity of having honest
and intelligent representatives in the State Legis-
lature.!

I have had opportunity of knowing something
about the workings of but a few of our other State
Legislatures: from what I have seen and heard, I
should say that we stand about on a par with those

* A few years later a member of the Italian Legation
"scored" heavily on one of our least pleasant national pecul-
iarities. An Italian had just been l3mched in Colorado, and
an Italian paper in New York bitterly denounced the Italian
Minister for his supposed apathy in the matter. The member
of the Legation in question answered that the accusations
were most unjust, for the Minister had worked zealously un-
til he found that the deceased *liad taken out his naturaliza-
tion papers, and was entitled to all the privileges of American
citizenship."

•f At present, twelve years later, I should say that there
was rather less personal corruption in the Legislature ; but also
less independence and greater subservience to the machine,
which is even less responsive to honest and enlightened public
opinion.

State Legislation 117

of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Illinois, above that
of Louisiana, and below those of Vermont, Massa-
chusetts, Rhode Island, and Wyoming, as well as
below the national legislature at Washington. But
the moral status of a legislative body, especially in
the West, often varies widely from year to year.

VI
MACHINE POLITICS IN NEW YORK CITY*

IN New York City, as in most of our other great
municipalities, the direction of poHtical affairs
has been for many years mainly in the hands of a
class of men who make politics their regular business
and means of livelihood. These men are able to keep
their grip only by means of the singularly perfect
way in which they have succeeded in organizing
their respective parties and factions ; and it is in con-
sequence of the clock-work regularity and efficiency
with which these several organizations play their
parts, alike for good and for evil, that they have been
nicknamed by outsiders "machines," while the men
who take part in and control, or, as they would them-
selves say, "run'' them, now form a well-recognized
and fairly well-defined class in the community, and
are familiarly known as machine politicians. It may
be of interest to sketch in outline some of the char-
acteristics of those men and of their machines, the
methods by which and the objects for which they
work, and the reasons for their success in the politi-
cal field.

The terms machine and machine politician are
now undoubtedly used ordinarily in a reproachful

* The Century, November, 1886.
(118)

Machine Politics 119

sense ; but it does not at all follow that this sense is
always the right one. On the contrary, the machine
is often a very powerful instrument for good ; and a
machine politician really desirous of doing honest
work on behalf of the community, is fifty times as
useful an ally as is the average philanthropic out-
sider. Indeed, it is of course true, that any political
organization (and absolutely no good work can be
done in politics without an organization) is a ma-
chine; and any man who perfects and uses this
organization is himself, to a certain extent, a ma-
chine politician. In the rough, however, the feeling
against machine politics and politicians is tolerably
well justified by the facts, although this statement
really reflects most severely upon the educated and
honest people who largely hold themselves aloof
from public life, and show a curious incapacity for
fulfilling their public duties.

The organizations that are commonly and dis-
tinctively known as machines are those belonging
to the two gjeat recognized parties, or to their
factional subdivisions ; and the reason why the word
machine has come to be used, to a certain extent,
as a term of opprobrium is to be found in the fact
that these organizations are now run by the leaders
very largely as business concerns to benefit them-
selves and their followers, with little regard to the
community at large. This is natural enough. The
men having control and doing all the work have
gradually come to have the same feeling about poli-
tics that other men have about the business of a

iio Machine Politics

mcrdiant or mannQcttircr ; it was too trrocfa to ex-
pect that if left entirely to tfacmselTes tfaer would
coiitinTie disinterestedly to work for tire beiwfit of
otfiers. !Many a raacfaine politician who is to-day
a most tmwholesome intkiencc in oar politics is in
pfrivate Hfe qtritc as respectable as any one dse: only
be has forgotten that his bosiness aflFects the State
at large, and^ regarding it as merely his own private
concern, he has carried into it the same selfish spirit
that actuates in business matters the majority of
the average mercantile community. A merdiant or
manufacturer works his business, as a rule, purdy
for his own benefit, without any regard whatever
for the community at large. The merchant uses all
his infkience for a low tariflF, and the manufacturer
is even more strenuously in favor of protection, not
at all from any theory of abstract right, but be-
cause of self-interest. Each views such a political
question as the tariff, not from the standpoint of
how it will affect the nation as a whole, but merely
from that of how it will affect him personally. If
a community were in favor of protection, but never-
theless permitted all the governmental machinery to
fall into the hands of importing merchants, it would
be small cause for wonder if the latter shaped the
laws to suit themselves, and the chief blame, after
all, would rest with the supine and lethargic ma-
jority which failed to have enough energy to take
charge of their own affairs. Our machine politicians
in actual life act in just the same way; their actions
are very often dictated by selfish motives, with but

Machine Politics 121

little regard for the people at large, though, like the
merchants, they often hold a very high standard of
honor on certain points; they therefore need con-
tinually to be watched and opposed by those who
wish to see good government. But, after all, it is
hardly to be wondered at that they abuse power
which is allowed to fall into their hands owing
to the ignorance or timid indifference of those who
by rights should themselves keep it.

In a society properly constituted for true demo-
cratic government — in a society such as that seen
in many of our country towns, for example — ma-
chine rule is impossible. But in New York, as well
as in most of our other gjeat cities, the conditions
favor the growth of ring or boss rule. The chief
causes thus operating against good government are
the moral and mental attitudes toward politics as-
sumed by different sections of the voters. A large
number of these are simply densely ignorant, and,
of course, such are apt to fall under the influence
of cunning leaders, and even if they do right, it is
by hazard merely. The criminal class in a great city
is always of some size, while what may be called
the potentially criminal class is still larger. Then
there is a great class of laboring men, mostly of
foreign birth or parentage, who at present both ex-
pect too much from legislation and yet at the same
time realize too little how powerfully though indi-
rectly they are affected by a bad or corrupt govern-
ment. In many wards the overwhelming majority

of the voters do not realize that heavy taxes fall
6 Vol. I.

122 Machine Politics

ultimately upon them, and actually view with perfect
complacency burdens laid by their representatives
upon the tax-payers, and, if anything, approve of
a hostile attitude toward the latter — having a vague
feeling of animosity toward them as possessing
more than their proper proportion of the world's
good things, and sharing with most other human
beings the capacity to bear with philosophic equa-
nimity ills merely affecting one's neighbors. When
powerfully roused on some financial, but still more
on some sentimental question, this same laboring
class will throw its enormous and usually decisive
weight into the scale which it believes inclines to
the right; but its members are often curiously and
cynically indifferent to charges of corruption against
favorite heroes or demagogues, so long as these
charges do not imply betrayal of their own real or
fancied interests. Thus an alderman or Assembly-
man representing certain wards may make as much
money as he pleases out of corporations without
seriously jeopardizing- his standing with his con-
stituents; but if he once, whether from honest or
dishonest motives, stands by a corporation when the
interests of the latter are supposed to conflict with
those of "the people," it is all up with him. These
voters are, moreover, very emotional; they value
in a public man what we are accustomed to consider
virtues only to be taken into account when estimat-
ing private character. Thus, if a man is open-
handed and warm-hearted, they consider it as a fair
offset to his being a little bit shaky when it comes

Machine Politics 123

to applying the eighth commandment to affairs of
state. I have more than once heard the statement,
**He is very liberal to the poor," advanced as a
perfectly satisfactory answer to the charge that a
certain public man was corrupt. Moreover, work-
ing men, whose lives are passed in one unceasing
round of narrow and monotonous toil, are not un-
naturally inclined to pay heed to the demagogues
and professional labor advocates who promise if
elected to try to pass laws to better their cctfidition ;
they are hardly prepared to understand or approve
the American doctrine of government, which is
that the State can not ordinarily attempt to better
the condition of a man or a set of men, but can
merely see that no wrong is done him or them by
any one else, and that all alike have a fair chance
in the struggle for life — a, struggle wherein it
may as well at once be freely though sadly acknowl-
edged, very many are bound to fall, no matter how
ideally perfect any given system of government
may be.

Of course it must be remembered that all these
general statements are subject to an immense num-
ber of individual exceptions ; there are tens of thou-
sands of men who work with their hands for their
daily bread and yet put into actual practice that sub-
lime virtue of disinterested adherence to the right,
even when it seems likely merely to benefit others,
and those others better off than they themselves
are; for they vote for honesty and cleanliness, in
spite of great temptation to do the opposite, and in

124 Machine Politics

spite of their not seeing how any immediate benefit
will result to themselves.

REASONS FOR THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC DUTIES
BY RESPECTABLE MEN IN EASY CIR-
CUMSTANCES

This class is composed of the gpreat bulk of the
men who range from well-to-do up to very rich;
and of these the former generally and the latter al-
most universally neglect their political duties, for
the most part rather pluming themselves upon their
good conduct if they so much as vote on election
day. This largely comes from the tremendous wear
and tension of life in our great cities. Moreover,
the men of small means with us are usually men of
domestic habits; and this very devotion to home,
which is one of their chief virtues, leads them to
neglect their public duties. They work hard, as
clerks, mechanics, small tradesmen, etc., all day
long, and when they get home in the evening they
dislike to go out. If they do go to a ward meeting
they find themselves isolated, and strangers both to
the men whom they meet and to the matter on which
they have to act; for in the city a man is quite as
sure to know next to nothing about his neighbors
as in the country he is to be intimately acquainted
with them. In the country the people of a neighbor-
hood, when they assemble in one of their local con-
ventions, are already well acquainted, and therefore
able to act together with effect ; whereas in the city,
even if the ordinary citizens do come out, they are

Machine Politics 125

totally unacquainted with one another, and are as
helplessly unable to oppose the disciplined ranks of
the professional politicians as is the case with a mob
of freshmen in one of our colleges when in danger
of being hazed by the sophomores. Moreover, the
pressure of competition in city life is so keen that
men often have as much as they can do to attend to
their own affairs, and really hardly have the leisure
to look after those of the public. The general ten-
dency everywhere is toward the specialization of
functions, and this holds good as well in politics as
elsewhere.

The reputable private citizens of small means
thus often neglect to attend to their public duties
because to do so would perhaps interfere with their
private business. This is bad enough, but the case
is worse with the really wealthy, who still more
generally neglect these same duties, partly because
not to do so would interfere with their pleasure,
and partly from a combination of other motives,
all of them natural but none of them creditable.
A successful merchant, well dressed, pompous, self-
important, unused to any life outside of the count-
ing room, and accustomed because of his very
success to be treated with deferential regard, as one
who stands above the common run of humanity,
naturally finds it very unpleasant to go to a caucus
or primary where he has to stand on an equal foot-
ing with his groom and day-laborers, and indeed
may discover that the latter, thanks to their faculty
for combination, are rated higher in the scale of

126 Machine Politics

political importarKDe than be is hiiradl In all the
large cities of the North the weaMuer, or, as tfanr
would prefer to style themselves, the "upper" rla^srs
tend distinctly toward the bourgeois type: and an
individual in the bourgeois stage of developciient,
while hcmest, industrious, and virtoous, is also not
unapt to be a miracle of timid and short-sighted sdf-
ishness. The commercial classes are only too likdy
to regard eventhing merely from the standpoint of
''Does it pay?" and many a merchant does not take
any part in politics because he is short-sighted
enough to think that it will pay him better to at-
tend purdy to making money, and too selfish to be
willing to undergo any trouble for the sake of ab-
stract duty; while the yoimger men of this type
are too much engrossed in their various social
pleasures to be willing to give their time to any-
thing else. It is also imfortmiately true, especially
throughout New England and the Middle States,
that the general tendency among people of culture
and high education has been to n^lect and even
to look down upon the rougher and manUer virtues,
so that an advanced state of intellectual develop-
ment is too often associated with a certain eflFem-
inacy of character. Our more intellectual men
often shrink from the raw coarseness and the eager
struggle of political life as if they were women.
Now, however refined and virtuous a man may be,
he is yet entirely out of place in the American body-
politic unless he is himself of sufficiently coarse
fibre and virile character to be more angered than

Machine Politics 127

hurt by an insult or injury; the timid good form a
most useless as well as a most despicable portion of
the community. Again, when a man is heard ob-
jecting to taking part in politics because it is "low,"
he may be set down as either a fool or a coward:
it would be quite as sensible for a militiaman to ad-
vance the same statement as an excuse for refusing
to assist in quelling a riot. Many cultured men
neglect their political duties simply because they
are too delicate to have the element of "strike back"
in their natures, and because they have an unmanly -
fear of being forced to stand up for their own
rights when threatened with abuse or insult. Such
are the conditions which give the machine men
their chance; and they have been able to make the
most possible out of this chance, — ^first, because of
the perfection to which they have brought their
machinery, and, second, because of the social char-
acter of their political organizations.

ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE MACHINES

The machinery of any one of our political bodies
IS always rather complicated ; and its politicians in-
variably endeavor to keep it so, because, their time
being wholly given to it, they are able to become
perfectly familiar with all its workings, while the
average outsider becomes more and more helpless
in proportion as the organization is less and less
simple. Besides some others of minor importance,
there are at present in New York three great politi-
cal organizations, vi:s., those of the regular Repub-

12? Macfcinc Politics

IbeXi. ths^ of t!-jc i?? Vefn^f pcr?s» tbe me-?: rcfcct.

wide ^fffererjce* m osts^rL ^ these booes ^rc orgsn-
jzed r;/:n nn-ch the same geacral pSas: 23d coe
4rvcT!;.tK>n mar be taken in tbc rocgt as zp^^jrig-
to all There is a large central cocisf ttcc ccai-
I^>%ed #>f mantroas delegates frKs the cfnere^rt as-
*«nib}y di^ricts, which ^tcides vpon the Tsriocs
^jUe^k/ns affecting the party as a whole in dsc
cx^mty and chy; and then there are tbc varioas
orgariization* in the assembly districts themselves.
which are the real scmrces of strength, and with
which akme it is necessary to deal- There are dif-
ferent rules for the admission to the varioas dis-
trict primaries and caucuses of the voters belonging
to the respective parties; but in almost every case
the real work is done and the real power held by
a small knot of men, who in turn pay a greater or
Ithn degree of fealty to a single boss.

The mere work to be done on election day and
in fwefmring for it forms no slight task. There is
an HunfKmtum in each assembly or election district,
with it» presiVlent, secretary, treasurer, executive
committee, etc.; these call the primaries and cau-
ciiHCH, arrange the lists of the delegates to the
various nominating conventions, raise funds for
ratnpai^^n i)nri)r>ses, and hold themselves in commu-
nication with their central party organizations. At

♦ Slutf mu'cn'iU'A evcrry year or two by some other anti-
TuwuiHuy Di'fnocrallc organization or organizations.

Machine Politics 129

the primaries in each assembly district a full set of
delegates is chosen to nominate Assemblymen and
aldermen, while others are chosen to go to the State,
county, and congressional conventions. Before elec-
tion day many thousands of complete sets of the
party ticket are printed, folded, and put together,
or, as it is called, "bunched." A single bundle of
these ballots is then sent to every voter in the dis-
trict, while thousands are reserved for distribution
at the polls. In every election precinct — there are
probably twenty or thirty in each assembly district
— ^ captain and from two to a dozen subordinates
are appointed.* These have charge of the actual
giving out of the ballots at the polls. On election
day they are at their places long before the hour
set for voting; each party has a wooden booth,
looking a good deal like a sentry-box, covered
over with flaming posters containing the names of
their nominees, and the "workers" cluster around
these as centres. Every voter as he approaches is
certain to be offered a set of tickets; usually these
sets are "straight," that is, contain all the nominees
of one party, but frequently crooked work will be
done, and some one candidate will get his own bal-
lots bunched with the rest of those of the opposite
party. Each captain of a district is generally paid
a certain sum of money, greater or less, according

* All this has been changed, vastly for the better, by the
ballot reform laws, under which the State distributes the
printed ballots; and elections are now much more honest than
formerly.

ijo Machine Politics

to his ability as a politician or according to his power
of serving the boss or machine. Nominally this
money goes in paying the subordinates and in what
are vaguely termed "campaign expenses," but, as a
matter of fact, it is in many instances simply pock-
eted by the recipient ; indeed, very little of the large
sums of money annually spent by candidates to bribe
voters actually reaches the voters supposed to be
bribed. The money thus furnished is procured
either by subscriptions from rich outsiders, or by
assessments upon the candidates themselves; for-
merly much was also obtained from office-holders,
but this is now prohibited by law. A great deal of
money is also spent in advertising, placarding post-
ers, paying for public meetings, and organizing and
uniforming members to take part in some huge
torchlight procession — this last particular form of
spectacular enjoyment being one peculiarly dear to
the average American political mind. Candidates
for very lucrative positions are often assessed really
huge sums, in order to pay for the extravagant meth-
ods by which our canvasses are conducted. Before
a legislative committee of which I was a member,
the Register of New York County blandly testified
under oath that he had forgotten whether his ex-
penses during his canvass had been over or under
fifty thousand dollars. It must be remembered that
even now — and until recently the evil was very
much greater — the rewards paid to certain public
officials are out of all proportion to the services
rendered; and in such cases the active managing

Machine Politics 131

politicians feel that they have a right to exact the
heaviest possible toll from the candidate, to help pay
the army of hungry heelers who do their bidding.
Thus, before the same committee, the County Clerk
testified that his income was very nearly eighty thou-
sand a year, but with refreshing frankness admitted
that his own position was practically merely that of
a figure-head, and that all the work was done by his
deputy, on a small, fixed salary. As the County
Clerk's term is three years, he should nominally
have received nearly a quarter of a million dollars;
but as a matter of fact two-thirds of the money
went to the political organizations with which he
was connected. The enormous emoluments of such
officers are, of course, most effective in debauching
politics. They bear no relation whatever to the
trifling quantity of work done, and the chosen can-
didate readily recognizes what is the exact truth, —
namely, that the benefit of his service is expected to
inure to his party allies, and not to the citizens at
large. Thus, one of the county officers who came
before the above-mentioned committee, testified with
a naive openness which was appalling, in answer to
what was believed to be a purely formal question as
to whether he performed his public duties faithfully,
that he did so perform them whenever they did not
conflict with his political duties ! — meaning thereby,
as he explained, attending to his local organizations,
seeing politicians, fixing primaries, bailing out those
of his friends (apparently by no means few in num-
ber) who got hauled up before a justice of the peace,

132 Machine Politics

etc. This man's statements were valuable because,
being a truthful person and of such dense ignorance
that he was at first wholly unaware his testimony-
was in any way remarkable, he really tried to tell
things as they were; and it had evidently never
occurred to him that he was not expected by every
one to do just as he had been doing, — ^that is, to
draw a large salary for himself, to turn over a still
larger fund to his party allies, and conscientiously
to endeavor, as far as he could, by the free use of
his time and influence, to satisfy the innumerable
demands made upon him by the various small-fry
politicians.*

"HEELERS''

The "heelers," or "workers," who stand at the
polls, and are paid in the way above described, form
a large part of the rank and file composing each or-
ganization. There are, of course, scores of them in
each assembly district association, and, together
with the almost equally numerous class of federal,
State, or local paid officeholders (except in so far as
these last have been cut out by the operations of the
civil-service reform laws), they form the bulk of
the men by whom the machine is run; the bosses
of great and small degree chiefly merely oversee the
work and supervise the deeds of their henchmen,
the organization of a party in our city is really
much like that of an army. There is one great

* As a consequence of our investigation, the committee, of
which I was chairman, succeeded in securing the enactment
of laws which abolished these enormous salaries.

Machine Politics 133

central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieu-
tenants; these communicate with the different dis-
trict bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist.
The district boss in turn has a number of half-
subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter
choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and
come into contact with the common heelers. The
more stupid and ignorant the common heelers are,
and the more implicitly they obey orders, the greater
becomes the effectiveness of the machine. An ideal
machine has for its officers men of marked force,
cunning and unscrupulous, and for its common sol-
diers men who may be either corrupt or moderately
honest, but who must be of low intelligence. This
is the reason why such a large proportion of the
members of every political machine are recruited
from the lower grades of the foreign population.
These henchmen obey unhesitatingly the orders of
their chiefs, both at the primary or caucus and on
election day, receiving regular rewards for so doing,
either in employment procured for them or else in
money outright. Of course it is by no means true
that these men are all actuated merely by mercenary
motives. The great majority entertain also a real
feeling of all'^iance toward the party to which they
belong, or toward the political chief whose fortunes
they follow; and many work entirely without pay
and purely for what they believe to be right. In-
deed, an experienced politician always greatly pre-
fers to have under him men whose hearts are in
their work and upon whose unbribed devotion he can

134 Machine Politics

rely; but unfortunately he finds, in most cases, that
their exertions have to be seconded by others which
are prompted by motives far more mixed.

AH of these men, whether paid or not, make a
business of political life and are thoroughly at home
among the obscure intrigues that go to make up so
much of it; and consequently they have quite as
much the advantage when pitted against amateurs
as regular soldiers have when matched against mili-
tiamen. But their numbers, thot^h absolutely large,
are, relatively to the entire community, so small that
some other cause must be taken into consideration
in order to account for the commanding position oc-
cupied by the machine and the machine politicians in
public life. This other determining cause is to be
found in the fact that all these machine associations
have a social as well as a political side, and that a
large part of the political life of every leader or boss
is also identical with his social life.

THE SOCIAL SIDE OF MACHINE POLITICS

The political associations of the various districts
are not organized merely at the approach of election
day ; on the contrary, they exist throughout the year,
and for the greater part of the time are to a great
extent merely social clubs. To a large number of
the men who belong to them they are the chief so-
cial rallying-point. These men congregate in the
association building in the evening to smoke, drink
beer, and play cards, precisely as the wealthier men
gather in the clubs whose purpose is avowedly so-

Machine Politics 135

cial and not political — such as the Union, Uni-
versity, and Knickerbocker. Politics thus becomes
a pleasure and relaxation as well as a serious pur-
suit. The different members of the same club or
association become closely allied with one another,
and able to act together on occasions with unison
and esprit de corps; and they will stand by one of
their own number for reasons precisely homologous
to those which make a member of one of the upper
clubs support a fellow-member if the latter happens
to run for office. "He is a gentleman, and shall have
my vote," says the swell club man. "He's one of
the boys, and I'm for him," replies the heeler from
the district party association. In each case the feel-
ing is social rather than political, but where the club
man influences one vote the heeler controls ten. A
rich merchant and a small tradesman alike find it
merely a bore to attend the meetings of the local
political club; it is to them an irksome duty which
is shirked whenever possible. But to the small poli-
ticians and to the various workers and hangers-on,
these meetings have a distinct social attraction, and
the attendance is a matter of preference. They are
in congenial society and in the place where by choice
they spend their evenings, and where they bring their
friends and associates ; and naturally all the men so
brought together gradually blend their social and
political ties, and work with an effectiveness impos-
sible to the outside citizens whose social instincts
interfere instead of coinciding with their political
duties. If an ordinary citizen wishes to have a game

rj6 Machine Politics

of cards or a talk with some of his companions, he
must keep away from the k>cal headquarters of his
party : whereas, under similar circumstances, die pro-
fessional politician must go there. The man who is
fond of his home naturally prefers to stay there in
the evening, rather than go out among the noisy dub
frequenters, whose pleasure it is to see each otier
at least weekly, and who spend their evenings dis-
cussing neither sport, business, nor scandal, as do
other sections of the community, but the equally
monotonous subject of ward politics.

The strength of our political organizations arises
from their devdopment as social bodies ; many of the
hardest workers in their ranks are neither oflBce-
holders nor yet paid henchmen, but merely members
who have gradually learned to identify tfieir for-
tunes with the party whose hall they have come to
f^ard as the headquarters in whidi to spend the
m<^>st agreeable of their leisure moments. Under
the American system it is impossible for a man to
ftcc/>mplish anything by himself; he must associate
fiifnf^lf with others, and they must throw their
wdjifht tr^gcthcr. This is just what the social func-
iUm<^ of the poh'tical clubs enable their members to
do. The great and rich society clubs are composed
ol tntn who are not apt to take much interest in
fK^lif icft ;itiyhow, and never act as a body. The great
ft(ec\ \rr(}<\uccA ]ry a social organization for politi-
cu] f)iirpo<%e<i is shown by the career of the Union
Ia'.ukw, (Inh; and equally striking proof can be seen
liy rvcry man who attends a ward meeting. There

Machine Politics 137

is thus, however much to be r^^etted it may be, a
constant tendency toward the concentration of po-
litical power in the hands of those men who by
taste and education are fitted to enjoy the social
side of the various political organizatic«is.

THE LIQUOR-SELLER IN POLITICS

It is this that gives the liquor-sellers their enor-
mous influence in politics. Preparatory to the gen-
eral election of 1884, there were held in the various
districts of New York ten hundred and seven pri-
maries and political conventions of all parties, and
of these no less than six hundred and thirty-three
took place in liquor-saloons, — a showing that leaves
small grotmd for wonder at the low average grade
of the nominees. The reason for such a condition of
things is perfectly evident; it is because the liquor-
saloons are places of social resort for the same men
who turn the local political organizations into social
clubs. Bartenders form perhaps the nearest ap-
proach to a leisure class that we have at present on
this side of the water. Naturally they are on semi-
intimate terms with all who frequent their houses.
There is no place where more gossip is talked than
in bar-rooms, and much of this gossip is about poli-
tics, — that is, the politics of the ward, not of the
nation. The tariff and the silver question may be
alluded to and civil-service reform may be inci-
dentally damned, but the real interest comes in dis-
cussing the doings of the men with whom they are
personally acquainted : why Billy So-and-so, the al-

ijS Machine Politics

derman, has qimrrdcd with his former chief sa^
porter ; whether "old man X" has really managed to
fix the dd^fates to a given convention; the reason
why one faction bolted at the last primary; and if
it is true that a great downtown boss who has an
intimate friend of opposite political faith running
in an uptown district has forced the managers of his
own party to put up a man of straw against him.
The barkeeper is a man of much local power, and is,
of course, hail-fellow-well-met with his visitors, as
he and they can be of mutual assistance to one an-
other. Even if of different politics, their feelings
toward each other are influenced purely by personal
considerations ; and, indeed, this is true of most of the
smaller bosses as regards their dealings among them-
selves, for, as one of them once remarked to me with
enigmatic truthfulness, "there are no politics in poli-
tics" of the lower sort — ^which, being interpreted,
means that a professional politician is much less apt
to be swayed by the fact of a man's being a Demo-
crat or a Republican than he is by his being a per-
sonal friend or foe. The liquor-saloons thus be-
come the social headquarters of the little knots or
cliques of men who take most interest in local po-
litical affairs ; and by an easy transition they become
the political headquarters when the time for prepar-
ing for the elections arrives; and, of course, the
good-will of the owners of the places is thereby pro-
pitiated, — an important point with men striving to
control every vote possible.

The local political clubs also become to a certain

Machine Politics 139

extent mutual benefit associations. The men in them
become pretty intimate with one another ; and in the
event of one becoming ill, or from any other cause
thrown out of employment, his fellow-members will
very often combine to assist him through his trou-
bles, and quite large sums are frequently raised for
such a purpose. Of course, this forms an addi-
tional bond among the members, who become closely
knit together by ties of companionship, self-interest,
and mutual interdependence. Very many members
of these associations come into them without any
thought of advancing their own fortunes ; they work
very hard for their party, or rather for the local
body bearing the party name, but they do it quite
disinterestedly, and from a feeling akin to that
which we often see make other men devote their
time and money to advancing the interests of a yacht
club or racing stable, although no immediate bene-
fit can result therefrom to themselves. One such
man I now call to mind who is by no means well oflf,
and is neither an office-seeker nor an office-holder,
but who regularly every year spends about fifty dol-
lars at election time for the success of the party, or
rather the wing of the party, to which he belongs.
He has a personal pride in seeing his pet candidates
rolling up large majorities. Men of this stamp also
naturally feel most enthusiasm for, or animosity
against, the minor candidates with whom they are
themselves acquainted. The names at the head of
the ticket do not, to their minds, stand out with
much individuality; and while such names usually

I40 Machine Politics

command the normal party support, yet very often
there is an infinitely keener rivalry among the smaller
politicians over candidates for local offices. I re-
member, in 1880, a very ardent Democratic ward
club, many of the members of which in the heat of
a contest for an Assemblyman coolly swapped off
quite a number of votes for President in considera-
tion of votes given to their candidate for the State
Legislature; and in 1885, in my own district, a local
Republican club that had a member running for
alderman, performed a precisely similar feat in re-
lation to their party's candidate for Governor. A
Tammany State Senator openly announced in a pub-
lic speech that it was of vastly more importance to
Tammany to have one of her own men Mayor of
New York than it was to have a Democratic Presi-
dent of the United States. Very many of the lead-
ers of the rival organizations, who lack the boldness
to make such a frankly cynical avowal of what their
party feeling really amounts to, yet in practice, both
as regards Mayor and as regards all other local offices
which are politically or pecuniarily of importance,
act exactly on the theory enunciated by the Tammany
statesman ; and, as a consequence, in every great elec-
tion not only is it necessary to have the mass of the
voters waked up to the importance of the principles
that are at stake, but, unfortunately, it is also nec-
essary to see that the powerful local leaders are con-
vinced that it will be to their own interest to be faith-
ful to the party ticket. Often there will be intense
rivalry between two associations or two minor

Machine Politics 141

bosses; and one may take up and the other oppose
the cause of a candidate with an earnestness and
hearty good-will arising by no means from any feel-
ing for the man himself, but from the desire to score
a triumph over the opposition. It not infrequently
happens that a perfectly good man, who would not
knowingly suffer the least impropriety in the conduct
of his canvass, is supported in some one district by a
little knot of politicians of shady character, who have
nothing in common with him at all, but who wish
to beat a rival body that is opposing him, and who
do not for a moment hesitate to use every device,
from bribery down, to accomplish their ends. A
curious incident of this sort came to my knowledge
while happening to inquire how a certain man be-
came a Republican. It occurred a good many years
ago, and thanks to our election laws it could not
now be repeated in all its details ; but affairs similar
in kind occur at every election. I may preface it by
stating that the man referred to, whom we will call
X, ended by pushing himself up in the world, thanks
to his own industry and integrity, and is now a
well-to-do private citizen and as good a fellow as
any one would wish to see. But at the time spoken
of he was a young laborer, of Irish birth, working
for his livelihood on the docks and associating with
his Irish and American fellows. The district where
he lived was overwhelmingly Democratic, and the
contests were generally merely factional. One small
politician, a saloon-keeper named Larry, who had a
great deal of influence, used to enlist c«i election day.

142 Machine Politics

by pay and other compensation, the services of the
gang- of young- fellows to which X belonged. On
one occasion he failed to reward them for their work,
and in other ways treated them so shabbily as to
make them very angry, more espedally X, who was
their leader. There was no way to pay Larry off
until the next election ; but they determined to break
his influence utterly then, and as the best method for
doing this they decided to "vote as far away from
him" as possible, or, in other words, to strain every
nerve to secure the election of all the candidates
most opposed to those whom Larry favored. After
due consultation, it was thought that this could be
most surely done by supporting the Republican
ticket. Most of the other bodies of young laborers,
or, indeed, of young roughs, made common cause
with X and his friends. Everything was kept very
quiet until election day, neither Larry nor the few
Republicans having an inkling of what was going on.
It was a rough district, and usually the Republican
booths were broken up and their ballot-distributers
driven off early in the day ; but on this occasion, to
the speechless astonishment of everybody, things
went just the other way. The Republican ballots
were distributed most actively, the opposing workers
were bribed, persuaded, or frightened away, all
means fair and foul were tried and finally there
was almost a riot, — the outcome being that the Re-
publican actually obtained a majority in a district
where they had never before polled ten per cent of
the total vote. Such a phenomenon attracted the

Machine Politics 143

attention of the big Republican leaders, who after
some inquiry found it was due to X.. To show their
gratitude and to secure so useful an ally perma-
nently (for this was before the days of civil-service
reform), they procured him a lucrative place in the
New York Post-Office ; and he, in turn, being a man
of natural parts, at once seized the opportunity, set
to work to correct the defects of his early education,
and is now what I have described him to be.

BOSS METHODS

A POLITICIAN who becomes an influential local
leader or boss is, of course, always one with a gen-
uine talent for intrigue and organization. He owes
much of his power to the rewards he is able to dis-
pense. Not only does he procure for his supporters
positions in the service of the State or city, — ^as in
the custom-house, sheriff's office, etc., — ^but he is
also able to procure positions for many on horse rail-
roads, the elevated roads, quarry works, etc. Great
corporations are peculiarly subject to the attacks of
demagogues, and they find it much to their interest
to be on good terms with the leader in each district
who controls the vote of the Assemblyman and al-
derman ; and therefore the former is pretty sure that
a letter of recommendation from him on behalf of
any applicant for work will receive most favorable
consideration. The leader is also continually help-
ing his henchmen out of difficulties, pecuniary and
otherwise; he lends them a dollar or two now and
then, helps out, when possible, such of their kinsmen

144 Machine Politics

as get into the clutches of the law, gets a hold over
such of them as have done wrong and are afraid of
being exposed, and learns to mix judicious bullying
with the rendering of service.

But, in addition to all this, the boss owes very
much of his commanding influence to his social re-
lations with various bodies of his constituents ; and
it is his work as well as his pleasure to keep up these
relations. No debutante during her first winter in
society has a more exacting rotmd of social duties
to perform than has a prominent ward politician.
In every ward there are numerous organizations,
primarily social in character, but capable of being
turned to good account politically. The Amalga-
mated Hack-drivers' Union, the Hibernian Republi-
can Club, the West Side Young Democrats, the Jef-
ferson C. MuUin Picnic Association, — there are
twenty such bodies as these in every district, and
with, at any rate, the master spirits in each and all
it is necessary for the boss to keep on terms of in-
timate and, indeed, rather boisterous friendship.
When the Jefferson C. Mullin society goes on a
picnic, the average citizen scrupulously avoids its
neighborhood; but the boss goes, perhaps with his
wife, and, moreover, enjoys himself heartily, and is
hail-fellow-well-met with the rest of the picnickers,
who, by the way, may be by no means bad fellows ;
and when election day comes round, the latter, in re-
turn, no matter to what party they may nominally
belong, enthusiastically support their friend and
guest, on social, not political, grounds. The boss

Machine Politics 145

knows cvciji man in his district who can control any
nnmber of TOtes: an infl u ential saloon-keeper^ tiie
owner of a large firerj staUe, die leader among a
set of horse-car drirers, a forem an in a machine-
shop who has a taste for politics, — ^with all alike he
keeps up constant and friendlj rdations. Of course
this fact does not of itsdf make the boss a bad man ;
there are several snch I could point out who are ten
times over better fdlows than are the mild-man-
nered sdicdars of timorous virtue who criticise them.
But. on die whole, the qualities tendii^ to make a
man a successful local political leader under our pres-
ent condidons are not apt to be qualides that make
him serv-e the public hcmesdy or disinterestedly : and
in the lower wards, where there is a large, \-icious
pc^Hiladoo. the condition of politics is often fairly
appalling, and the boss of the dominant party is gen-
erally a man of grossly immoral public and private
character, as any one can satisfy himself b\' exam-
ining the testimony taken by the last two or three
legislative committees that hsive investigated the af-
fairs of New Yoric City. In dome of diesc x^'ards
many of the social organizations with which the
leaders are obliged to keep on good terms are com-
posed of criminals, or of the relatives and asso-
ciates of criminals. The testimony mentioned above
showed some strange things. I will take at random
a few instances that occur to me at the moment
There was one case of an Assemblyman who serv- ed
several terms in the L^skture, while his private

business was to carry on corrupt negotiations be-
7 Vol. L

146 Machine Politics

tween the Excise Commissioners and owners of low
haunts who wished licenses. The president of a
powerful semi-political association was by profes-
sion a burglar, the man who received the goods he
stole was an alderman. Another alderman was
elected while his hair was still short from a term in
State Prison. A school trustee had been convicted
of embezzlement, and was the associate of criminals.
A prominent official in the Police Department was
interested in disreputable houses and gambling sa-
loons, and was backed politically by their proprietors.

BEATING THE MACHINE

In the better wards the difficulty comes in drilling
a little sense and energy into decent people: they
either do not care to combine or else refuse to learn
how. In one district we did at one time and for a
considerable period get control of affairs and elect
a set of almost ideal delegates and candidates to the
various nominating and legislative bodies, and in the
end took an absolutely commanding, although tempo-
rary, position in State and even in national politics.

This was done by the efforts of some twenty or
thirty young fellows who devoted a large part of
their time to thoroughly organizing and getting out
the respectable vote. The moving spirits were all
active, energetic men, with common-sense, whose
motives were perfectly disinterested. Some went
in from principle; others, doubtless, from good-fel-
lowship or sheer love of the excitement always at-
tendant upon a political struggle. Our success was

Machine Politics 147

due to our absolute freedom from caste spirit.
Among our chief workers were a Columbia College
professor, a crack oarsman from the same institu-
tion, an Irish quarryman, a master carpenter, a rich
young merchant, the owner of a small cigar store,
the editor of a little German newspaper, and a couple
of employees from the post-office and custom-house,
who worked directly against their own seeming in-
terests. One of our important committees was com-
posed of a prominent member of a Jewish syna-
gogue, of the son of a noted Presbyterian clergyman,
and of a young Catholic lawyer. We won some
quite remarkable triumphs, for the first time in New
York politics carrying primaries against the ma-
chine, and as the result of our most successful strug-
gle completely revolutionizing the State Convention
held to send delegates to the National Republican
Convention of 1884, and returning to that body, for
the first and only time it was ever done, a solid dele-
gation of Independent Republicans. This was done,
however, by sheer hard work on the part of a score
or so of men; the mass of our good citizens, even
after the victories which they had assisted in win-
ning, understood nothing about how they were won.
Many of them actually objected to organizing, ap-
parently having a confused idea that we could always
win by what one of their number called a "sponta-
neous uprising," to which a quiet young fellow in our
camp grimly responded that he had done a good
deal of political work in his day, but that he never
in his life worked so hard and so long as he did to

148 Machine Politics

get up the "spontaneous" movement in which we
were then engaged.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, it may be accepted as a fact, how-
ever unpleasant, that if steady work and much at-
tention to detail are required, ordinary citizens, to
whom participation in politics is merely a disagree-
able duty, will always be beaten by the organized
army of politicians to whom it is both duty, busi-
ness, and pleasure, and who are knit together and to
outsiders by their social relations. On the other
hand, average citizens do take a spasmodic interest
in public affairs; and we should therefore so shape
our governmental system that the action required
by the voters should be as simple and direct as
possible, and should not need to be taken any more
often than is necessary. Governmental power
should be concentrated in the hands of a very few
men, who would be so conspicuous that no citizen
could help knowing all about them ; and the elections
should not come too frequently. Not one decent
voter in ten will take the trouble annually to inform
himself as to the character of the host of petty
candidates to be balloted for, but he will be sure
to know all about the mayor, controller, etc. It
is not to his credit that we can only rely, and that
without much certainty, upon his taking a spasmodic
interest in the government that affects his own well
being; but such is the case, and accordingly we
ought, as far as possible, to have a system requir-
ing on his part intermittent and not sustained action.

VII

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY AND THE CAM-
PAIGN OF 1896*

THE Vice-President is an officer unique in his
character and functions, or to speak more
properly, in his want of functions while he remains
Vice-President, and in his possibility of at any
moment ceasing to be a functionless official and be-
coming the head of the whole nation. There is no
corresponding position in any constitutional gov-
ernment. Perhaps the nearest analogue is the heir
apparent in a monarchy. Neither the French Presi-
dent nor the British Prime Minister has a substitute,
ready at any moment to take his place, but exercis-
ing scarcely any authority until his place is taken.
The history of such an office is interesting, and the
personality of the incumbent for the time being
may at any moment become of vast importance.

The founders of our government — ^the men who
did far more than draw up the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, for they put forth the National Constitu-
tion — in many respects builded very wisely of set
purpose. In some cases they built wiser than they
knew. In yet other instances they failed entirely
to achieve objects for which they had endeavored

* Review of Reviews, September, 1896.

{149)

150 The Campaign of 1896

to provide by a most elaborate and ingenious gov-
ernmental arrangement. They distrusted what
would now be called pure Democracy, and they
dreaded what we would now call party government.

Their distrust of Democracy induced them to con-
struct the electoral college for the choice of a Presi-
dent, the original idea being that the people should
elect their best and wisest men, who in turn should,
untrammeled by outside pressure, elect a President.
As a matter of fact the functions of the electorate
have now by time and custom become of little more
importance than those of so many letter-carriers.
They deliver the electoral votes of their States just
as a letter-carrier delivers his mail. But in the
Presidential contest this year it may be we shall
see a partial return to the ideals of the men of
1789; for some of the electors on the Bryan-Sewall-
Watson ticket may exercise a choice between the
Vice-Presidential candidates.

The distrust felt by the founders of the Constitu-
tion for party government took shape in the scheme
to provide that the majority party should have the
foremost place, and the minority party the second
place, in the national executive. The man who re-
ceived the greatest number of electoral votes was
made President, and the man who received the sec-
ond greatest number was made Vice-President, on
a theory somewhat akin to that by which certain re-
formers hope to revolutionize our system of voting
at the present day. In the early days, under the
present Constitution, this system resulted in the

The Campaign of 1896 151

choice of Adams for President and of his anti-type,
Jefferson, as Vice-President, the combination being
about as incongruous as if we should now see Mc-
Kinley President and either Bryan or Watson Vice-
President. Even in theory such an arrangement is
very bad, because under it the Vice-President might
readily be, and as a matter of fact was, a man utterly
opposed to all the principles to which the President
was devoted, so that the arrangement provided in
the event of the death of the President, not for a
succession, but for a revolution. The system was
very soon dropped, and each party nominated its
own candidates for both positions. But it was many
years before all the members of the electoral college
of one party felt obliged to cast the same votes for
both President and Vice-President, and consequently
there was a good deal of scrambling and shifting in
taking the vote. When, however, the parties had
crystallized into Democratic and Whig, a score of
years after the disappearance of the Federalists, the
system of party voting also crystallized. Each party
then, as a rule, nominated one man for President
and one for Vice-President, these being voted for
throughout the nation. This system in turn speed-
ily produced strange results, some of which remain
to this day. There are and must be in every party
factions. The victorious faction may crush out and
destroy the others, or it may try to propitiate at
least its most formidable rival. In consequence, the
custom grew of offering the Vice-Presidency as a
consolation prize, to be g^ven in many cases to the

152 The Campaign of 1896

very men who were most bitterly opposed to the
nomination of the successful candidate for Presi-
dent. Sometimes this consolation prize was awarded
for geographical reasons, sometimes to bring into
the party men who on points of principle might split
away because of the principles of the Presidential
candidate himself, and at other times it was awarded
for merely factional reasons to some faction which
did not differ in the least from the dominant faction
in matters of principles, but had very decided views
on the question of offices.

The Presidency being all important, and the Vice-
Presidency of comparatively little note, the entire
strength of the contending factions is spent in the
conflict over the first, and very often a man who
is most anxious to take the first place will not take
the second, preferring some other political position.
It has thus frequently happened that the two candi-
dates have been totally dissimilar in character and
even in party principle, though both running on the
same ticket. Very odd results have followed in
more than one instance.

A striking illustration of the evils sometimes
springing from this system is afforded by what be-
fell the Whigs after the election and death of the
elder Harrison. Translated into the terms of the
politics of continental Europe of to-day, Harrison's
adherents represented a union between the right and
the extreme left against the centre. That is, the
regular Whigs who formed the bulk of his support-
ers were supplemented by a small body of extremists

The Campaign of 1S96 153

who, in their political principles, were even more
alien to the Whigs than were the bulk of the regular
Democrats, but who themselves hated these regular
Democrats with the peculiar ferocity so often felt
by the extremist for the man who goes far, but not
quite far enough. In consequence, the President
represented Whig principles, the Vice-President rep-
resented a rather extreme form of the very principles
to which the Whigs were most opposed. The result
was that when Harrison died the Presidency fell into
the hands of a man who had but a corporal's guard
of supporters in the nation, and who proceeded to
oppose all the measures of the immense majority
of those who elected him.

A somewhat similar instance was afforded in the
case of Lincoln and Johnson. Johnson was put on
the ticket largely for geographical reasons, and on
the death of Lincoln he tried to reverse the policy of
the party which had put him in office. An instance
of an entirely different kind is afforded by Garfield
and Arthur. The differences between these two
party leaders were mainly merely factional. Each
stood squarely on the platform of the party, and all
the principles advocated by one were advocated by
the other; yet the death of Garfield meant a complete
overturn in the personnel of the upper Republican
officials, because Arthur had been nominated ex-
pressly to placate the group of party leaders who
most objected to the nomination of Garfield. Arthur
made a very good President, but the bitterness
caused by his succession to power nearly tore the

154 The Campaign of 1896

party in twain. It will be noted tfiat most of tiicse
evils arose from the fact that the Vice-President
under ordinary circumstances possesses so Ifttic real
power. He presides over the Senate and he has in
Washington a position of marked social importance,
but his political weight as Vice-President is almost
nil. There is always a chance that he may bccooK
President. As this is only a diaiKc, it seems qtrite
impossible to persuade politicians to give it proper
weight. This certainly does not seem right. The
Vice-President should, so far as possible, represent
the same views and principles which have secured
the nomination and election of the President, and
he should be a man standing well in the councils
of the party, trusted by his fellow party leaders, and
able, in the event of any accident to his chief, to take
up the work of the latter just where it was left.
The Republican party has this year nominated such
a man in the person of Mr. Hobart. But nomina-
tions of this kind have by no means always been the
rule of recent years. No change of parties, for in-
stance, could well produce a greater revolution in
policy than would have been produced at almost any
time during the last three years if Mr. Cleveland
had (lied and Mr. Stevenson had succeeded him.

One sure way to secure this desired result would
itndoubtedly be to increase the power of the Vice-
President. He should always be a man who would
be consulted by the President on every great party
(juestion. It would be very well if he were given a
seat in the Cabinet. It might be well if, in addition

The Campaign of 1896 155

to his vote in the Senate in the event of a tie, he
should be given a vote, on ordinary occasions^ and
perchance on occasions a voice in the debates. A
man of the diameter of Mr. Hobart is sure to make
his weight feh in an administration, but the power
of thus exercising influence should be made official
rather than personaL

The present contest offers a strikii^ illustration
of the way in which the Vice-President oi^t and
ought not to be nominated, and to study this it is
necessary to study not only the \*'ay in which the
diflferent candidates were nominated, but, at least
in outline, the characters of the candidates them-
selves.

For the first time in many years, indeed for the
first time since parties have fairly crystallized along
their present lines, there are three parties running,
two of which support the same Presidential candidate
but different candidates for the Vice-Presidency.
Each one of these parties has carried several States
during the last three or four years. Each party
has a right to count upon a number of electoral
votes as its own. Qosely though the Democratic
and Populistic parties have now approximated in
their principles as enunciated in the platforms of
Chicago and St. Louis, they yet do differ on cer-
tain points, and neither would have any chance of
beating the Republicans without the help of the
other. The result has been a coalition, yet each
party to the coalition has retained enough of its
jealous individuality to make it refuse to accept the

156 The Campaign of 1896

randiclate of the other for the second position on the
ticket.

II1C Republican party stands on a normal and
healthy party footing. It has enunciated a definite
set of principles entirely in accord with its past ac-
tions. It has nominated on this platform a Presi-
dent and Vice-President, both of whom are thor-
ough-going believers in all the party principles set
forth in the platform upon which they stand. Mr.
McKinley believes in sound finance, — ^that is, in a
currency based uix)n gold and as good as gold. So
does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley believes in a pro-
tective tariff. So does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley
believes in the only method of preserving orderly
liberty, — that is, in seeing that the laws are enforced
at whatever cost. So does Mr. Hobart. In short,
Mr. Hobart stands for precisely the same principles
that are represented by Mr. McKinley. He is a
man of weight in the community, who has had wide
experience both in business and in politics. He is
taking an active part in the campaign, and he will
be a power if elected to the Vice-Presidency. All
the elements which have rallied behind Mr. McKin-
ley are just as heartily behind Mr. Hobart. The
two represent the same forces, and they stand for a
party with a coherent organization and a definite
purpose, to the carrying out of which they are
equally pledged.

It will be a matter of much importance to the na-
tion that the next Vice-President should stand for
some settled policy. It is an unhealthy thing to

The Campaign of 1896 157

have the Vice-President and President represented
by principles so far apart that the succession of one
to the place of the other means a change as radical
as any possible party overturn. The straining and
dislocation of our governmental institutions was
very great when Tyler succeeded Harrison and
Johnson succeeded Lincoln. In each case the ma-
jority of the party that had won the victory felt that
it had been treated with scandalous treachery, for
Tyler grew to be as repulsive to the Whigs as Polk
himself, and the Republicans could scarcely have
hated Seymour more than they hated Johnson. The
Vice-President has a three-fold relation. First to
the Administration; next as presiding officer in the
Senate, where he should be a man of dignity and
force; and third in his social position, for socially
he ranks second to the President alone. Mr. Mor-
ton was in every way an admirable Vice-President
under General Harrison, and had he succeeded to
the Presidential chair therewould have been no break
in the great policies which were being pushed for-
ward by the Administration. But during Mr. Qeve-
land's two incumbencies Messrs. Hendricks and
Stevenson have represented, not merely hostile fac-
tions, but principles and interests from which he
was sundered by a gulf quite as great as that which
divided him from his normal party foes. Mr.
Sewall would make a colorless Vice-President, and
were he at any time to succeed Mr. Br3ran in the
White House would travel Mr. Br3ran's path only
with extreme reluctance and under duress. Mr.

158 The Campaign of 1896

Watson would be a more startling, more attractive,
and more dangerous figure, for if he got the chance
he would lash the nation with a whip of scorpions,
while Mr. Bryan would be content with the torture
of ordinary thongs.

Finally, Mr. Hobart would typify as strongly as
Mr. McKinley himself what was best in the Repub-
lican party and in the nation, and would stand as one
of the known champions of his party on the very
questions at issue in the present election. He is a
man whose advice would be sought by all who are
prominent in the Administration. In short, he would
be the kind of man whom the electors are certain
to choose as Vice-President if they exercise their
choice rationally.

The men who left the Republican party because
of the nomination of McKinley would have left it
just as quickly if Hobart had been nominated.
They do not believe in sound finance, and though
many of the bolters object to anarchy and favor
protection, they feel that in this crisis their per-
sonal desires must be repressed and that they are
conscientiously bound to support the depreciated dol-
lar even at the cost of incidentally supporting the
principles of a low tariff and the doctrine that a mob
should be allowed to do what it likes with immunity.
There are many advocates of clipped or depreciated
money who are rather sorry to see the demand for
such currency coupled with a demand for more law-
lessness and an abandonment by the government
of the police functions which are the essential attri-

The Campaign of 1896 159

butes of civilization; but they have overcome their
reluctance, feeling that on the whole it is more im-
portant that the money of the nation should be un-
sound than that its kws should be obeyed. Peq[)le
who fed this way are just as much opposed to Mr.
Hobart as to Mr. McKinley. They object to the
platform upon which the two men stand, and they
object as much to the character of one man as to
the character of the other. They are repelled by
McKinley's all^iance to the cause of sound money^
and find nothing to propitiate them in Hobart's
uncompromisingly honest attitude on the same ques-
tion. There is no reason whatever why any voter
who would wish to vote against the one should
favor the other or vice versa.

When we cross the political Kne all this is
changed. On the leading issue of the campaign
the entire triangle of candidates are a unit Mr.
Bryan, the nominee for the Presidency, and Messrs.
Sewall and Watson, the nominees for the Vice-
Presidency, are almost equally devoted adherents
of the light-weight dollar and of a currency which
shall not force a man to repay what he has bor-
rowed, and shall punish the wrong-headed laborer,
who expects to be paid his wages in money worth
something, as heavily as the business man or farmer
who is so immoral as to wish to pay his debts. All
three are believers in that Old- World school of
finance which appears under such protean changes
of policy, always desiring the increase of the circu-
lating medium, but differing as to the means, which

i6o The Campaign of 1896

in one age takes the form of putting base metal in
with the good, or of clipping the good, and in an-
other assumes the guise of fiat money, or the free
coinage of silver. On this currency question they
are substantially alike, agreeing (as one of their
adherents picturesquely put it, in arguing in favor of
that form of abtmdant currency which has as its
highest exponent the money of the late Confed-
eracy) that "the money which was good enough for
the soldiers of Washington is good enough for us/*
As a matter of fact the soldiers of Washington were
not at all grateful for the money which the loud-
mouthed predecessors of Mr. Bryan and his kind
then thought "good enough" for them. The money
with which the veterans of Washington were paid
was worth two cents on the dollar, and as yet neither
Mr. Bryan Mr. Sewall, nor Mr. Watson has ad-
vocated a two-cent copper dollar. Still, they are
striving toward this ideal, and in their advocacy of
the fifty-cent dollar they are one.

But beyond this they begin to differ. Mr. Sewall
distinctly sags behind the leader of the spike team,
Mr. Bryan, and still more distinctly behind his rival,
or running mate, or whatever one may choose to call
him, the Hon. Thomas Watson. There is far more
regard for the essential fitness of things in a ticket
which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Watson than
one which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Sewall. Mr.
Watson is a man of Mr. Bryan's type, only a little
more so. But Mr. Sewall is of a different type, and
possesses many attributes which must make associa-

The Campaign of 1896 161

tion with him exceedingly painful, not merely to Mr.
Watson, but to Mr. Bryan himself. He is a well-to-
do man. Indeed in many communities he would be
called a rich man. He is a banker, a railroad man,
a shipbuilder, and has been successful in business.
Now if Mr. Brj^an and Mr. Watson really stand for
any principle it is hostility to this kind of success.
Thrift, industry, and business energy are qualities
quite incompatible with true Populistic feeling; pay-
ment of dd)ts, like the suppression of riots, is ab-
horrent to the Populistic mind. Such conduct strikes
the Populist as immoral. Mr. Bryan made his ap-
pearance in Congress with two colleagues elected on
the same ticket, one of whom stated to the present
writer that no honest man ever earned $5,000 a
year; that whoever got that amount stole it. Mr.
Sewall has earned many times $5,000 a year. He
is a prosperous capitalist. Populism never prospers
save where men are unprosperous, and your true
Populist is especially intolerant of business success.
If a man is a successful business man he at once
calls him a plutocrat.

He makes only one exception. A miner or specu-
lator in mines may be many times a millionaire and
yet remain in good standing in the Populist party.
The Populist has ineradicably fixed in his mind the
belief that silver is a cheap metal, and that silver
money is, while not fiat money, still a long step to-
ward it. Silver is connected in his mind with scal-
ing down debts, the partial repudiation of obliga-
tions, and other measures aimed at those odious

1 62 The Campaign of 1896

tw>neytd tjrants who lend moocy to persons who
insist t^on borrowing, or who have pot tiicir ill-
gotten gains in savings banks and kindred wicked in-
stitutions for the encooragexnent of the vice of tfirift.
These pleasurable associations quite outweigh, with
the PopuUst, the fact that the silver man himself is
rich. He is even for the moment blind to the further
fact that these pro-silver men, like Senator Stewart,
Governor Altgeld, and their compeers, streniKJusIy
insist that the obligations to themselves shall be
liquidated in gold; indeed this particular idiosyn-
crasy of the silver leaders is not much fro\*-ned upon
by the bulk of the Populists, because it has at least
the merit of savoring strongly of "doing" one's
creditors. Not even the fact that rich silver mine
owners may have earned their money honestly can
outweigh the other fact that they champion a species
of currency which will make most thrifty and hon-
est men poorer, in the minds of the truly logical
Populist.

But Mr. Sewall has no fictitious advantage in the
way of owing his wealth to silver. He has made
his money precisely as the most loathed reprobate of
Wall Street — or of New York, which the average
I'opulist regards as synonymous with Wall Street —
has made his. The average Populist does not draw
fine distinctions. There are in New York, as in other
larffc cities, scoundrels of great wealth who have
made their money by means skilfully calculated to
come just outside the line of criminality. There are
other men who have made their money exactly as

The Campaign of 1896 163

the successful miner or farmer makes his, — that is,
by the exercise of shrewdness, business daring, en-
ergy and thrift But the Populist draws no line of
division between these two classes. They have made
money, and that is enough. One may have built
railroads and the other have wrecked them, but they
are both railroad men in his eyes, and that is all.
One may have swindled his creditors, and the other
built up a bank which has been of incalculable bene-
fit to all who have had dealings with it, but to the
Populist they are both gold bugs, and as such nox-
ious. Mr. Sewall is the type of man the contempla-
tion of which usually throws a Populist orator into
spasms. But it happens that he believes in free sil-
ver, just as other very respectable men believe in
spirit rapping, or the faith-cure, or Buddhism, or
pilgrimages to Lourdes, or the foot of a gravejrard
rabbit. There are very able men and very lovely
women who believe in each or all of these, and there
are a much larger number who believe in free sil-
ver. Had they lived in the days of Sparta they
would have believed in free iron, iron coin being at
tiiat time the cheapest circulating medium, the adop-
tion of which would give the greatest expansion of
the currency. But they have been dragged on by
the slow procession of the centuries, and now they
only believe in free silver. It is a belief which is
compatible with all the domestic virtues, and even
occasionally with very good capacities as a public
servant. Mr. Sewall doubtless stands as one of these
men. He can hardly be happy, planted firmly as he

164 The Campaign of 1896

13, on the Gikago platfornL In the nmids of most
thrifty, hard-woiidng men, who are giren to think-
ing at an about poblic questions, the free-silTer piank
15 very far from being the most rotten of the nsanj
rotten planks put together widi sudi p er ve r t ed skill
hy the Chicago ardntects. A jdatform which de-
clares in &vor of free and nnlimited riotii^ and
which has the same strenoous objection to the exer-
cise of the police power by the general government
that is felt in the circles presided over by Herr Most,
Eugene V. Debs, and all the people whose pictures
appear in the detective bureaus of our great dties,
can not appeal to persons who have gone beyond
the unpolished-stone period of civilization.

The men who object to what they st>'le "govern-
ment by injunction^^ are, as regards the essential
principles of government, in hearty sympathy witii
their remote skin-clad ancestors who lived in caves,
fought one another with stone-headed axes, and
ate the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. They
are interesting as representing a geological survival,
but they are dangerous whenever there is the least
chance of their making the principles of this ages-
buried post living factors in our present life. They
are not in sympathy with men of good minds and
sound civic morality. It is not a nice thing to wish
to pay one's debts in coins worth fifty cents on the
dollar, but it is a much less nice thing to wish to
plunge one's country into anarchy by providing that
the law shall only protect the lawless and frown
scornfully on the law-abiding. There is a good deal

The Campaign of 1896 16 j

of mushy sentiment in the world, and there are al-
ways a certain nmnber of people whose minds are
weak and whose enioti(Mis are strcmg and who ef-
fer\-esce with sympathy toward any man who does
wrong, and with indignation against any man who
chastises the criminal for havii^ done wrong. These
emotionalists, moreover, are alwa}3 reinforced by
that large body of men who themselves wish to do
^Tong. and who are not sentimental at all, but, on
the coDtrary, very pracdcaL It is rarely that these
two classes control a great political party, but at Chi-
cago this became an accomidished facL

Furthermore, the Chicago Convention attacked
the Stq>reme Cootl Again this represents a species
of atavian, — that is, of recurrence to the wzjs of
thought of rexBOte barbarian ancestors. Savages do
not Hke an independent and upright jadidary. They
want the jodge to decide tbeir way, and if be does
not, they want to behead him. The Populists ex-
perience mtfich the same emotkos when tfa^ realize
that the jtsdkiary staods between tfaem and phmder.

Xow on an these poaxts Mr. SewaB can faardlj
fed coczq)kte sympathy with his ttxaporaiy allies^
He is verj anxioas that the Populists shall vote for
him for \lcc-PresidcEit, and g« cckitsc he feds a
kirkily tmodaa to'vard ^bosc who do inassd to ¥Ote
for him. He wooki Aydtxit^ pordc^ mncii heresy
of politieal beHef in any rmrnhfr of the electoral
college who feds diat SevaH is Ms mend, not
Watson, — Gyflin, not Ssoct. He has. of cocrrsfc.
a vem of the erratic in his character, or adagsrmist

i66 The Campaigp of 1896

he would not be m socfa comp au y at all, and would
have no qoafity diat would recommend him to tfaem.
Hut on die whole his sjmqntfaies must lie with the
man who saves money rather than with the man
who i>ropoMs to take away the mooej when it has
ticen hHved^ and with the policeman who arrests a
violent criminal rather than with the criminaL Such
sympathy puts him at a disadvantage in the Popu-
list camp* He is loud in his professions of be-
lief in the remarkable series of principles for which
he h sui>iK>sal to stand, but his protestations ring
ratlicr liollow. The average supporter of Bryan
rloutitless intends to support Sewall, for he thinks
him an unimportant tail to the Bryan kite. But,
though unimportant, he regards him with a slight
feeling of irritation, as being at the best a rather
ludicrous contrast to the rest of the kite. He con-
tributes no element of strength to the Bryan ticket,
for other men who work hard and wish to enjoy
the fruits of their toil simply regard him as a rene-
gade, and the average Populist, or Populistic Dem-
ocrat, does not like him, and accepts him simply
because he fears not doing so may jeopardize
Bryan's chances. He is in the uncomfortable posi-
tion always held by the respectable theorist who
gets caught in a revolutionary movement and has
to wedge nervously up into the front rank with
the gentlemen who arc not troubled by any of his
aeruplea, and who really do think that it is all very
line and glorious. In fact Mr. Sewall is much the
least pictureaijue and the least appropriate figure on

The Can)paign of 1896 167

the platform or platforms upon which Mr. Bryan is
standing.

Mr. Watson, whose enemies now call him a
Georgia cracker, is in reality a far more suitable
companion for Mr. Bryan in such a contest. It
must be said, however, that if virtue always received
its reward Mr. Watson and not Mr. Bryan would
stand at the head of the ticket. In the language
of mathematicians Mr. Watson merely represents
Mr. Bryan raised several powers. The same is
true of the Populist as compared to the Democratic
platform. Mr. Bryan may aflfect to believe that free
silver does represent the ultimate goal, and that
his friends do not intend to go further in the direc-
tion of fiat money. Mr. Watson's friends, the mid-
dle-of-the-road Populists, are much more fearless
and much more logical. They are willing to accept
silver as a temporary makeshift, but they want a
currency based on corn and cotton next, and ulti-
mately a currency based on the desires of the people
who issue it. The statesmanlike utterance of that
great financier, Mr. Bryan's chief rival for the nom-
ination and at present his foremost supporter, Mr.
Bland, to the effect that he would "wipe out the
national debt as with a sponge," meets with their
cordial approval as far as it goes, but they object
to the qualification before the word "debt." In
wiping out debts they do not wish to halt merely at
the national debt. The Populists indorsed Bryan as
the best they could get; but they hated Sewall so
that they took the extraordinary step of nominating

1 68 The Campaign of 1896

the Vice-President before the President so as to
make sure of a really acceptable man in the person
of Watson.

With Mr. Bryan denunciation of the gold bug
and the banker is largely a mere form of intellectual
entertainment; but with Mr. Watson it represents
an almost ferocious conviction. Some one has said
that Mr. Watson like Mr. Tillman, is an embodied
retribution on the South for having failed to educate
the cracker, the poor white who gives him his
strength. It would ill beseem any dweller in cities
of the North, especially any dweller in the city of
Tammany, to reproach the South with having
failed to educate anybody. But Mr. Watson is
certainly an awkward man for a community to
develop. He is infinitely more in earnest than is
Mr. Bryan. Mr. Watson^s followers belong to that
school of Southern Populists who honestly believe
that the respectable and commonplace people who
own banks, railroads, dry-goods stores, factories,
and the like, are persons with many of the mental
and social attributes that unpleasantly distinguished
Heliogabalus, Nero, Caligula, and other worthies
of later Rome. Not only do they believe this, but
they say it with appalling frankness. They are very
sincere as a rule, or at least the rank and file are.
They are also very suspicious. They distrust any-
thing they can not understand; and as they under-
stand but little this opens a very wide field for dis-
trust. They are apt to be emotionally religious.
If not, they are then at least atheists of an archaic

The Campaign of 1896 169

type. Refinement and comfort they are apt to con-
sider quite as objectionable as immorality. That
a man should change his clothes in the evening,
that he should dine at any other hour than noon,
impress these good peopie as being symptoms of
depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for
learning and cultivated friends, and a tendency to
bathe frequently, cause them the deepest suspicion.
A well-to-do man they regard with jealous distrust,
and if they can not be well-to-do themselves, at least
they hope to make matters uncomfortable for those
that are. They possess many strong, rugged vir-
tues, but they are quite impossible politically, because
they always confound the essentials and the non-
essentials, and though they often make war on vice,
they rather prefer making war upon prosperity and
refinement.

Mr. WatscMi was in a sense bom out of place
when he was born in Georgia, for in Georgia the
regular DenKx:rary, while it has accepted the prin-
ciples of the Populists, has made war on their person-
nelj and in every way strives to press them down.
Far better for Mr. Watson would it have been
could he have been bom in the adjacent State of
South Carddna, where the Populists swallowed the
Democrats with a gulp. Senator Tillman, the great
Populist or Democratic orator from South Caro-
lina, possesses an untrammeled tongue any middle-
of-the-road man would envy; and moreover Mr.
Tillman's brother has been frequently elected to
Congress upon the issue that he never wore either
8 Vol. I.

lyo The Campaign of 1896

an overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any
Populist statesman finds readily comprehensible, and
which he would recognize at first glance as being
strong before the people. It needs a certain amount
of mental subtlety to appreciate that it is for one's
interest to support a man because he is honest and
has broad views about coast defences and the navy,
and other similar subjects; but it does not need any
mind at all to have one's prejudices stirred in favor
of a statesman whose claim to the title rests upon
his indifference to the requirements of civilized
dress.

Altogether Mr. Watson, with his sincerity, his
frankness, his extreme suspiciousness, his distrust of
anything he can not understand, and the feeling he
encourages against all the elegancies and decencies
of civilized life, is an interesting personage. He
represents the real thing, while Bryan after all is
more or less a sham and a compromise. Mr. Wat-
son would, at a blow, destroy all banks and bankers,
with a cheerful, albeit- vague, belief that thereby
he was in some abstruse way benefiting the people
at large. And he would do this with the simple
sincerity and faith of an African savage who tries
to benefit his tribe by a sufficiency of human sacri-
fices. But Mr. Bryan would be beset by ugly doubts
when he came to put into effect all the mischievous
belief of his followers, and Mr. Sewall would
doubtless be frankly miserable if it ever became
necessary for him to take a lead in such matters.
Mr. Watson really ought to be the first man on the

The Campaign of 1896 171

ticket, with Mr. Bryan second; for he is mudi the
superior in boldness, in thorough-going acceptance
of his principles according to their logical conclu-
sions, and in sincerity of faith. It is impossible not
to r^fret that the Democrats and Populists should
not have put forward in the first place the man
who genuinely represents their ideas.

However, it is even doubtful whether Mr. Wat-
son will receive the support to which he is entitled
as a Vice-Presidential candidate. In the South the
Populists have been so crushed under the heel of the
Democrats, and have bitten that heel with such
eager venom, that they dislike entering into a coali-
ticm with them ; but in the South the Democrats will
generally control the election machinery. In the far
West, and generally in those States where the
Populist wing of the new alliance is ascendant, the
Populists have no especial hatred of the Democrats.
They know that their principles are substantially
identical, and they think it best to support the man
who seems to represent the majority faction among
the various factions that stand behind Bryan.

As a consequence of this curious condition of
affairs there are several interesting possibilities open.
The electoral collie consists of the men elected at
the polls in the various States to record the decrees
of the majorities in those States, and it has grown
to be an axiom of politics that they must merely
register the will of the men who elected them. But
it does seem possible that in the present election some
of the electors may return to the old principles of

ADMINISTRATION

CIVIL SERVICE

SIX YEARS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM*

NO question of internal administration is so im-
portant to the United States as the question
of Civil Service reform, because the spoils system,
which can only be supplanted through the agencies
which have found expression in the act creating the
Civil Service Commission, has been for seventy
years the most potent of all the forces tending to
bring about the degradation of our politics. No re-
public can permanently endure when its politics are
corrupt and base; and the spoils system, the appli-
cation in political life of the degrading doctrine that
to the victor belong the spoils, produces corruption
and degradation. The man who is in politics for the
offices might just as well be in politics for the money
he can get for his vote, so far as the general good
is concerned. When the then Vice-President of the
United States, Mr. Hendricks, said that he "wished
to take the boys in out of the cold to warm their
toes,'* thereby meaning that he wished to distribute
offices among the more active heelers, to the raptur-
ous enthusiasm of the latter, he uttered a sentiment
which was morally on the same plane with a wish to

*Scribner^s Magazine, August, 1895.

(177)

178 Civil Service Reform

give "the boys" five dollars apiece all around for
their votes, and fifty dollars apiece when they showed
themselves sufficiently active in bullying, bribing,
and cajoling other voters. Such a sentiment should
bar any man from public life, and will bar him when-
ever the people grow to realize that the worst ene-
mies of the Republic are the demagogue and the
corruptionist. The spoils-monger and spoils-seeker
invariably breed the bribe-taker and bribe-giver, the
embezzler of public funds and the corrupter of
voters. Civil Service reform is not merely a move-
ment to better the public service. It achieves this
end too ; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of
public life, and it is in this direction that its effects
have been of incalculable good to the whole com-
munity.

For six years, from May, 1889, to May, 1895, I
was a member of the National Civil Service Com-
mission, and it seems to me to be of interest to show
exactly what has been done to advance the law
and what to hinder its advancement during these
six years, and who have been the more prominent
among its friends and foes. I wish to tell "the ad-
ventures of Philip on his way through the world,"
and show who robbed him, who helped him, and who
passed him by. It would take too long to give the
names of all our friends, and it is not worth while
to more than allude to most of our foes and to most
of those who were indifferent to us; but a few of the
names should be preserved and some record made of
the fights that have been fought and won and of the

Civil Service Reform 179

way in which, by fits and starts, and with more than
one setback, the general advance has been made.

Of the Commission itself little need be said.
When I took office the only Commissioner was Mr.
Charles Lyman, of Connecticut, who resigned when
I did. Honorable Hugh S. Thompson, ex-Governor
of South Carolina, was made Commissioner at the
same time that I was, and after serving for three
years resigned. He was succeeded by Mr. George
D. Johnston, of Louisiana, who was removed by the
President in November, 1893, being replaced by
Mr. John R. Procter, the former State Geologist of
Kentucky, who is still serving. The Commission
has never varied a hand's breadth from its course
throughout this time ; and Messrs. Thompson, Proc-
ter, L3rman, and myself were always a unit in all
important questions of policy and principle. Our
aim was always to procure the extension of the clas-
sified service as rapidly as possible and to see that
the law was administered thoroughly and fairly.
The Commission does not have the power that it
should, and in many instances there have been vio-
lations or evasions of the law in particular bureaus
or departments which the Commission was not able
to prevent. In every case, however, we made a reso-
lute fight, and gave the widest publicity to the
wrong-doing. Often, even where we have been un-
able to win the actual fight in which we were en-
gaged, the fact of our having made it, and the
further fact that we were ready to repeat it on
provocation, has put a complete stop to the repe-

i8o Civil Service Reform

tition of the offence. As a consequence, while there
have been plenty of violations and evasions of the
law, yet their proportion was really very small, tak-
ing into account the extent of the service. In the
^gregate it is doubtful if one per cent of all the
employees have been dismissed for political reasons.
In other words, where under the spoils system a hun-
dred men would have been turned out, imder the
Civil Service Law, as administered imder our super-
vision, ninety-nine men were kept in.

In the administration of the law very much de-
pends upon the Commission. Good heads of depart-
ments and bureaus will administer it well anyhow;
but not only the bad men, but also the large class
of men who are weak rather than bad, are siu'e to
administer the law poorly unless kept well up to the
mark. The public should exercise a most careful
scrutiny over the appointment and over the acts of
Civil Service Commissioners, for there is no office
the effectiveness of which depends so much upon the
way in which the man himself chooses to construe
his duties. A Commissioner can keep within the
letter of the law and do his routine work and yet ac-
complish absolutely nothing in the way of securing
the observance of the law. The Commission, to do
useful work, must be fearless and vigilant. It must
actively interfere whenever wrong is done, and must
take all the steps that can be taken to secure the pun-
ishment of the wrong-doer and to protect the em-
ployee threatened with molestation.

This course was consistently followed by the Com-

Civil Service Reform i8i

mission throughout my comiection with it. I was
myself a Republican from the North. Messrs.
Thompson and Procter were from the South, and
were both Democrats who had served in the Con-
federate armies ; and it would be impossible for any
one to desire as associates two public men with
higher ideals of duty, or more resolute in their ad-
herence to those ideals. It is unnecessary to say
that in all our dealings there was no single instance
wherein the politics of any person or the political
significance of any action was so much as taken
into accoimt in any case that arose. The force of the
Commission itself was all chosen through the com-
petitive examinations, and included men of every
party and from every section of the country;
and I do not believe that in any public or private
crffice of the size it would be possible to find
a more honest, efficient, and coherent body of
workers.

From the beginning of the present system each
President of the United States has been its friend,
but no President has been a radical Civil Service re-
former. Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and Cleve-
land have all desired to see the service extended, and
to see the law well administered. No one of them
has felt willing or able to do all that the reformers
asked, or to pay much heed to their wishes save as
regards that portion of the service to which the law
actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man,
who has felt strongly on such questions as those of
the tariff, of finance, and of our foreign policy, and

1 82 Civil Service Reform

each has been obliged to conform more or less closely
to the wishes of his party associates and fellow party
leaders ; and, of course, these party leaders, and the
party politicians generally, wished the offices to be
distributed as they had been ever since Andrew
Jackson became President. In consequence the of-
fices outside the protection of the law have still been
treated, under every Administration, as patronage, to
be disposed of in the interest of the dominant party.
An occasional exception was made here and there.
The Postmaster at New York, a Republican, was re-
tainc<l by President Cleveland in his first Adminis-
tration, and the Postmaster of Charleston, a Demo-
crat, was retained by President Harrison ; but, with
altogether insignificant exceptions the great bulk
of the non-classified places have been changed for
|k>)itieal reasons by each Administration, the office-
holders iM>)itica))y opposed to the Administration
being »u()plantecl or succeeded by political adher-
enti of the Administration,

Where the change has been complete it does not
inatti^r much whether it was made rajwdly or slowly.
Thuji, the fourth-cl»5i;5ii p^v^tuxasterj^hips were looted
luort^ rapidly undt^r tht^ Admmiiitration of President
Ibnis&txn \\\<\\\ uudt^r \\\<xX of INrt^siident Gevdand,
n\\K\ the i\>i^?iul<AV w^v\$vn(> m^f^ rapidly \tnder Presi-
d«^nt 1 levelrtuxl \\\^\\ \\\\\\^\ tV^ident Harriscm; but
the (\m\ result WSA!!^ \W ^\w^ \\\ both cases. Indeed, I
think tluit ihr Uv^MiA^itv whWh aecompanJed the great-
er s^iKtHl WW?! \\\ ^^w^ \mi^ ^^f service to the coimtry,
for it dhwtttl «Hm^lM\ \<^ t\^ Iniquity and fofly

JCmWI^ "tiZTTZCt tCSlUIK

1^:

fflWMIHi.'UimT-

ixiiKai^ TOT Tjoimr? leasosr x: Taarr- insect tiK
liifTfrv^ 2E^ iciicir xio&wiizcs^ sai: 2x2: fie mmjp uipi
xir anr* jjuu. ^in>' looEi x:! uxHmc xfisiFr imc tut

TIje .surzaoxe aa.- aee:. Ta*:<ff" xcrsr ge: mr iZHS&.
iisac SL. ir inmrr ^szorccooc:: c: ise la^. aac ir
Tiiriivtfng: iTpnrr tat jar. . cr 22Z32rr £gesl srsfcir sxn^
Hsr jr m: aaszxxicmi q: i. nrnor. of Ik flerYice^

iTigrr"T. ^iiozr Smgnnt: rrrtmr Ixe: fis: rtassinz^
nuL vrz^ nstat. ^vnurr. i i rrimm z^^jaac viaos^. l;n-
OCT PrffsirirTT: ZmstsomL mi;iA% iiss ns: -ECim. thc:
linns nf iht ripsTOn: ssttzsl vssrt rxvrrinrf iyy Iht
isdustm. r£ '^jsol aiiiiiiiiii&il ii&caK. Diiriug Pxesi-
osm nariiifcijii i& .tem iht timi'. ¥s^ £sseiulsd bn* Ihi^

rmrmR mr rr 2]dfDDII ^ ^prrr ^tnmSSanL Jlbcs^ I awfi ^HH -

cm mi-'ii^ ?jpsfrign: iZic^esand^ armif icon, Irr
Ttig^ hirm R i n r x£ ^imx; fiix Ihoisanc piaEis : it uddi-
idaL 'Xi^ ^wnusx. ixB: iiatirra'' ^xsw& cc "Sat serrioe li&s

V'yn' ^mrr -fer -fty laial m ni i^it *- ai oficCS HOV clfiSSi-

£c:c :s VTffs: 4D.XBS1. MnnEcnoer^ Ae Secnfi&iT oa the
XzTTT jmcET Psiesidcnt Barrisam. imraSxiOBd into the
SETT- jzr^ £ ^e^i&m of j:e^iKi : ii:CT i of Iftbcmesns.
vitioi setsrs Sie end desbec 1^ liie Cconxanssktri ;
acad Secnessoj Hcdxsi lias oamszaKd ti^is ^c^iMnt. tl
oeHj Testis 2iQqreT«; ijpsm &e miO erf the Secw^n*
oi tbe Xarr: aad as ve can not ex|!iect ^uNnit^^ fv>
hare S c u eUii es as ckar-s^lsd as Mes»^ T\*^y
and Heriot, it is most desirable that this braiKt\ wf

1 84 Civil Service Reform

the service should be put directly under the control
of the Commission.

The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Ser-
vice reformers to start with, usually become such be-
fore their terms of office expire. This was true,
without exception, of all the Cabinet officers with
whom I was personally brought into contact while
on the Commission. Moreover, from their position
and their sense of responsibility they are certain to
refrain from violating the law themselves and to
try to secure at least a formal compliance with its
demands on the part of their subordinates. In most
cases it is necessary, however, to goad them contin-
ually to see that they do not allow their subordi-
nates to evade the law; and it is very difficult to
get either the President or the head of a depart-
ment to punish these subordinates when they have
evaded it. There is not much open violation of the
law, because such violation can be reached through
the courts ; but in the small offices and small bureaus
there is often a chance for an unscrupulous head
of the office or bureau to persecute his subordinates
who are politically opposed to him into resigning,
or to trump up charges against them on which they
can be dismissed. If this is done in a sufficient
number of cases, men of the opposite political party
think that it is useless to enter the examinations;
and by staying out they leave the way clear for the
offender to get precisely the men he wishes for the
eligible registers. Cases like this continually oc-
cur, and the Commission has to be vigilant in de-

Civil Service Reform 185

tecting and exposing them, and in demanding their
punishment by the head of the ofRce. The offender
always, of course, insists that he has been misunder-
stood, and in most cases he can prepare quite a
specious defence. As he is of the same political
faith as the head of the department, and as he is
certain to be backed by influential politicians, the
head of the department is usually loth to act
against him, and, if possible, will let him off with, at
most, a warning not to repeat the offence. In some
departments this kind of evasion has never been
tolerated ; and where the Commission has the force
under its eye, as in the departments at Washington,
the chance of injustice is minimized. Nevertheless,
there have been considerable abuses of this kind,
notably in the custom-houses and post-offices,
throughout the time I have been at Washington.
So far as the Post-Office Department was con-
cerned, the abuses were more flagrant under Presi-
dent Harrison's Postmaster-General, Mr. Wana-
maker; but in the Treasury Department they were
more flagrant under President Cleveland's Secre-
tary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle.

Congress has control of the appropriations for the
Commission, and as it can not do its work without
an ample appropriation the action of Congress is vital
to its welfare. Many, even of the friends of the
system in the country at large, are astonishingly ig-
norant of who the men are who have battled most
effectively for the law and for good government in
either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not

1 86 Civil Service Reform

only necessary that a man shall be good and possess
the desire to do decent things, but it is also neces-
sary that he shall be courageous, practical, and effi-
cient, if his work is to amount to anything. There
is a good deal of rough-and-tumble fighting in Con-
gress as there is in all our political life, and a man
is entirely out of place in it if he does not possess the
virile qualities, and if he fails to show himself ready
and able to hit back when assailed. Moreover, he
must be alert, vigorous, and intelligent, if he is going
to make his work count. The friends of the Civil
Service Law, like the friends of all other laws, would
be in a bad way if they had to rely solely upon the
backing of the timid good. During the last six years
there have been, as there always are, a number of
men in the House who believe in the Civil Service
Law, and who vote for it if they understand the
question and are present when it comes up, but who
practically count for very little one way or the other,
because they are timid or flighty, or are lacking in
capacity for leadership or ability to see a point and
to put it strongly before their associates.

There is need of further legislation to perfect and
extend the law and the system; but Congress has
never been willing seriously to consider a proposition
looking to this extension. Bills to provide for the
appointment of fourth-class postmasters have been
introduced by Senator Lodge and others, but have
never come to anjrthing. Indeed, but once has a
measure of this kind been reported from committee
and fought for in either House. This was in the last

CSviU Servian Rcianaa i$^

zjn^ Lodge TTnracnnec "nii XC' r^am: ::^ cansabr

CacEEnEiffic OE FDraig!ii AfecrrSu sad m«ne invoribSy
rejwarBed. Senzmxr Lcidge Tnarif a ^5%ianGBas %SHt for

aaad was df waned, SecSutor GotriDacD Va-drrtg t3!ic<!ppc>-
satSosi.

Ona dDC <sdDer kEDQ, efforts i© Ttpai lije law, or to
desJTDT h W new legjsiarv:n, hkx^ tcmformly beeai
faihiits. aiid hs.Te rairij gone beyood connnstlee.
OocaaooaBy, in am sqipropmiSoaii Kl or ^soroie od>er
measure, aaa anucndinDeoi wiH be slipped throsugh, add-
ing fOTtr OT* fifty canpJoTnees to the dassEfied servioe,
or ffra\i&ng that the law shall noc apply to tbeni :
but nodnng important has ever been done in this
way. But once has there been a resohite attack
made on the law by legislation. This was in the
53d Congress, when Mr. Bynran, of Indiana, intro-
duced in die House, and Mr. Vilas, of Wisconsin,
pushed in the Senate, a bill to reinstate the Denio*
cratic railway mail clerks, turned out before the
classificaticm of the railway mail sendee in the early
days of Mr. Harrison's Administration.

The classification of the railway mail service was
ordered by President Qe\'eland less than two months
before the expiration of his first term of office as
President. It was impossible for the Commission to
prepare and hold the necessary examinations and es-
tablish eligible registers prior to May I, 1889, Presi-
dent Harrison had been inaugurated on March 4th,

1 88 Chril Service Refonn

and Postmaster-General Wanamaker permitted the
spoilsmen to take advantage of the necessarj delay
and torn oat half of the cmptoyces who were Deini>^
crats, and replace them fay Repoblicans. This was
an occtrageoos act, deserving the severe condemnar-
tkxi it received; but it was per&cdy legaL Daring
the fom- years of Mr. Qeveiand^s first term a clean
sweep was made of the railway mail service ; die em*
pfeyeeswho were almost all Reptxhiicans were tamed
oat, and Democr a ts were pat in tiieir places. The
resolt was utterly to demoralize the eflSdency of die
service. It had began to recover from this when die
change of Admimstratioa took place in 1889. The
time was too titort to aBow of a dean sweeps bat
the Repabikans did all they coald in two m n irtl-w ,
and tamed out half of the Democrats. The law then
went into effect, and since diat time there have been
00 more removals for partisan porposes in dat
servioe. It has ik>w recovered from the d e m or a Kza*
tioQ into whidi it was thrown by die two pc^itical
revcJut ionSy and has reacbed a hig:faer standard ol
e flki eiit y than ever before. What was done by the
Rqxibiicans in this service vras repeated, on a less
scale, by the Democrats four years later in reference
to the classification of the small free-delivery post-
offices. This ciassificatioa was ordered by President
Harrison two months before his term of office ex-
pired ; but in many of the offices it was impossible to
hold examinations and prepare digibk r^;isters an-
til after the inauguration of President Clcvdand, and
in a number of cases the incoming postmasters, who

Civil Service Reform 189

were appointed prior to the time when the law
went into effect, took advantage of the delay to
make clean sweeps of their offices. In one of these
offices, where the men were changed in a body, the
new appointees hired the men whom they replaced,
at $35 a month apiece, to teach them their duties ; in
itself a sufficient comment on the folly of the spoils
system.

Mr. Bynum's bill provided for the reinstatement
of the Democrats who were turned out by the Re-
publicans just before the classification of the rail-
way mail service. Of course such a bill was a mere
partisan measure. There was no more reascMi for
reinstating the Democrats thus turned out than for
reinstating the Republicans who had been previous-
ly turned out that these same Democrats might get
in, or for reinstating the Republicans in the free-
delivery offices who had been turned out just be-
fore these offices were classified. If the bill had
been enacted into law it would have been a most
serious blow to the whole system, for it would have
put a premium upon legislation of the kind; and
after every change of parties we should have seen
the passing of laws to reinstate masses of Republi-
cans or Democrats, as the case might be. This would
have meant a return to the old system under a new
form of procedure. Nevertheless, Mr, B)nium's bill
received the solid support of his party. Not a Dem-
ocratic vote was cast against it in the House, none
even of the Massachusetts Democrats being re-
corded against it. In the Senate it was pushed by

190 Civil Service Reform

Mr. Vilas. By a piece of rather sharp parliamentary
procedure he nearly got it through by unanimous
consent. That it failed was owing entirely to the
vigilance of Senator Lodge. Senator Vilas asked
for the passage of the bill, on the grotmd that it
was one of small importance, upon which his com-
mittee were agreed. When it was read the words
"classified civil service" caught Senator Lodge's
ear, and he insisted upon an explanation. On find-
ing out what the bill was he at once objected to its
consideration. Under this objection it could not
then be considered. If it could have been brought
to a vote it would undoubtedly have passed; but
it was late in the session, the calendars were crowded
with bills, and it was impossible to get it up in
its regular order. Another effort was made, and
was again frustrated by Senator Lodge, and the
bill then died a natural death.

In the final session of the 53d Congress a little
incident occurred which deserves to be related in
full, not for its own importance, but because it
affords an excellent example of the numerous cases
which test the real efficiency of the friends of the
reform in Congress. It emphasizes the need of
having, to watch over the interests of the law, a
man who is willing to fight, who knows the time to
fight, and who knows how to fight The secretary
of the Commission was, in the original law of 1883,
allowed a salary of $1,600 a year. As the Com-
mission's force and woric have grown, the salary
in successive appropriation bills for the last ten

Civil Service Reform 191

years has been proxaded for at the rate of $2,000
a year. Many of the clerks under the secretary
now receive $1,800, so that it would be of course
an absurdity to reduce him in salary below his
subordinates. Scores of other officials of the Gov-
ernment, including, for instance, the President's
private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster-
General, the First Assistant Secretary of State,
etc., have had their salaries increased in successive
appropriation bills over the sum originally pro-
vided, in precisely the same way that the salary of
the secretary of the Commission was increased.
The 53d Congress was Democratic, as was the
President, Mr. Cleveland, and the secretary of the
Commission was himself a Democrat, who had been
appointed to the position by Mr. Cleveland during
his first term as President The rules of the House
provide that there shall be no increase of salary
beyond that provided in existing law in any ap-
propriation bill. When the appropriation for the
Civil Service Commission came up in the House,
Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, made the point
of order that to give $2,000 to the secretary of the
Commission was to increase his salary by $400
over that provided in the original law of 1883, and
was therefore out of order. He also produced a
list of twenty or thirty other officers, including the
President's private secretary, the First Assistant
Postmaster-General, etc., whose salaries were sim-
ilarly increased. He withdrew his point of orde^
as regards these persons, but adhered to it as re-

19^ Civil Service Reform

gards the secretary of the CommissioiL The
chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Mr.
O'Neill, of Massachusetts, sustained the point of
order; and not one person made any objection or
made any fight, and the bill was put through the
House with the secretary's salary reduced.

Now the point of order was probably ill taken
anyhow. The existing law was and had been for
ten years that the salary was $2,000. But, in any
event, had there been a single Congressman alert
to the situation and willing to make a fight he could
have stopped the whole movement by at once mak-
ing a similar point of order against the President's
private secretary, against the First Assistant Post-
master-General, the Assistant Secretary of State,
and all the others involved. The House would of
course have refused to cut down the salaries of all
of these officials, and a resolute man, willing to in-
sist that they should all go or none, could have
saved the salary of the secretary of the Civil Service
CcMnmission. There were plenty of men who would
have done this if it had been pointed out to them;
but no one did so, and Mr. Breckinridge's point of
order was sustained, and the salary of the secretary
reduced by $400. When it got over to the Senate,
however, the Civil Service reformers had allies
who needed but little coaching. In the first place,
the sub-committee of the Committee on Appropria-
tions, composed of Messrs. Teller, Cockrell, and
Allison, to which the Civil Service Commission
section of the Appropriation bill was referred, re-

Civil Service Reform 193

stored the salary to $2,000; but Senator Gorman
succeeded in carrying, by a bare majority, the Ap-
propriations Committee against it, and it was re-
ported to the full Senate at $1,600. The minute
it got into the full Senate, however. Senator Lodge
had a fair chance at it, and it was known that he
would receive ample support. All that he had to
do was to show clearly the absolute folly of the
provision thus put in by Mr. Breckinridge, and kept
in by Mr. Gorman, and to make it evident that he
intended to fight it resolutely. The opposition col-
lapsed at once; the salary was put back at $2,000,
and the bill became a law in that form.

Whether bad legislation shall be choked and good
legislation forwarded depends largely upon the com-
position of the committees on Civil Service reform
of the Senate and the Lower House. The make-up
of these committees is consequently of gpreat impor-
tance. They are charged with the duty of investi-
gating against the Commission, and it is of course
very important that if ever the Commission becomes
corrupt or inefficient its shortcomings should be un-
sparingly exposed in Congress. On the other hand,
it is equally important that the falsity of untruthful
charges advanced against it should be made public.
In the 51st, 52d, and 53d Congresses a good deal of
work was done by the Civil Service Committee of
the House, and none at all by the corresponding
committee of the Senate. The three chairmen of
the House committee were Mr. Lehlbach, Mr. An-
drew, and Mr. De Forest All three were able and
9 Vol. I.

194 Civil Service Reform

conscientious men and stanch supporters of the law.
The chairman in the 52d Congress, Mr. John F.
Andrew, was throughout his whole term of service
one of the ablest, most fearless, and most effective
champions of the cause of the reform in the House.
Among the other members of the committee, in dif-
ferent Congresses, who stood up valiantly for the
reform, were Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, Mr. Butter-
worth, of Ohio, Mr. Boatner, of Louisiana, and Mr.
Dargan and Mr. Brawley, of South Carolina. Oc-
casionally there have been on the committee members
who were hostile to the reform, such as Mr. Alder-
son, of West Virginia ; but these have not been men
carrying weight in the House. The men of intelli-
gence and ability who once familiarize themselves
with the workings of the system, as they are bound
to do if they are on the committee, are sure to be-
come its supporters. In both the 51st and the 52d
Congresses charges were made against the Commis-
sion, and investigations were held into its actions
and into the workings of the law by the House com-
mittee. In each case, in its report the committee
not only heartily applauded the conduct of the Com-
mission, but no less heartily approved the workings
of the law, and submitted bills to increase the power
of the Commission and to render the law still more
wide-reaching and drastic. These bills, unfortu-
nately, were never acted on in the House.

The main fight in each session comes on the Ap-
propriation bill. There is not the slightest danger
that the law will be repealed, and there is not much

Civil Service Reform 195

danger that any President will suffer it to be so
laxly administered as to deprive it of all value;
though there is always need to keep a vigilant look-
out for fear of such lax administration. The dan-
ger-point is in the appropriations. The first Civil
Service Commission, established in the days of Pres-
ident Grant, was starved out by Congress refusing
to appropriate for it. A hostile Congress could re-
peat the same course now ; and, as a matter of fact,
in every Congress resolute efforts are made by the
champions of foul government and dishonest poli-
tics to cut off the Commission's supplies. The bolder
men, who come from districts where little is known
of the law; and where there is no adequate expres-
sion of intelligent and honest opinion on the subject,
attack it openly. They are always joined by a num-
ber who make the attack covertly under some point
of order, or because of a nominal desire for econ-
omy. These are quite as dangerous as the others,
and deserve exposure. Every man interested in de-
cent government should keep an eye on his Con-
gressman and see how he votes on the question of
appropriations for the Commission.

The opposition to the reform is generally well led
by skilled parliamentarians, and they fight with the
vindictiveness natural to men who see a chance of
striking at the institution which has baffled their
ferocious greed. As a rule, the rank and file are
composed of politicians who could not rise in public
life because of their attitude on any public question,
and who derive most of their power from the skill

ji)6 Civil Service Reform

with which th^ numipnlate die patronage of tbdr
districts. These men have a gift at office-tmxigeF-
ing^. just as odier men have a peadiar knack in pick-
ing pockets : and they are joined by all the hooe^
dull men. who vote wrong out of pore ignorance, and
bj a very few sincere and intelligent, bat whotty nris-
guided people. Many of the spoils leaders are both
efficient and fearless, and able to strike hard bk>ws.
In consequence, the leaders on the side of decency
must themselves be men of ability and force, or tiic
cause will suffer. For our good fortune, we have
never yet lacked such leaders.

The Appropriation committees, both in the Hotse
and Senate, almost invariably show a friendly dis-
position toward the law. They are cotnposed of
men oi prominence, who have a sense of the respou-
sibilities of their p<^>sition3 and an earnest desire to
do well if^ the country and to make an honorable
reo'/fd i(yT their party in matters of l^^Iation.
They are usualty above resorting to the arts of k>w
rfmriin^ ht of sheer demzgr^gy to which the foes of
the reU/rtn system are inevitably driven, and in con-
<^/\iience they c/,in t>c relie^l upon to give, if not what
i<5 needed, ;it least enr/tij^h to prevent any retrogres-
9i'um. ft h in the ^/|ien House and in Committee
of the Whole th/'it the fi^ht is waged. The most
d;mj/er^xiis fi^ht rx:ctirs in Committee of the Whole,
for there the memfxjrs do not vote by aye and no,
uuf] in cmis€/|iiencc a mean politician who wishes ill
to the law, Uti is afraid of his constituents, votes
?ij/ait)st it in committee, but does not dare to do so

Civil Service Refonn 197

when the ayes and noes are called in tlie House.
One result of this has been that more than once the
whole appropriation has been stricken out in Com-
mittee of the Whole, and then voted back again by
substantial majorities by the same mai sitting in
open House.

In the debate on the appropriation the whole ques-
tion of the workings of the law is usually discussed,
and those members who are opposed to it attack not
only the law itself, but the Commission which ad-
ministers it The occasion is, therefore, in\^ariably
seized as an opportimity for a pitched battle between
the friends and foes of the system, the former try-
ing to secure such an increase of appropriation as
will permit the Commission to extend its work, and
the latter striving to abolish the law outright by re-
fusing all appropriations. In the 51st and $2d Con-
gresses, Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts, led the fight
for the reform in the Lower House. He was sup-
ported by such party leaders as Messrs. Reed, of
Maine, and McKinley, of Ohio, among the Republi-
cans, and Messrs. Wilson, of West Virginia, and
Sayers, of Texas, among the Democrats. Among
the other champions of the law on the floor of the
House were Messrs. Hopkins and Butterworth, Mr.
Greenhalge, of Massachusetts, Mr. Henderson, of
Iowa, Messrs. Payne, Tracey, and Coombs, of New
York. I wish I had the space to chronicle the names
of all, and to give a complete list of those who voted
for the law. Among the chief opponents of it were
Messrs. Spinola, of New York, Enloe, of Tennessee,

198 Civil Service Reform

Stockdale, of Mississippi, Grosvenor, of Ohio, and
Bowers, of California. The task of the defenders
of the law was, in one way easy, for they had no
arguments to meet, the speeches of their adversaries
being invariably divisible into mere declamation and
direct misstatement of facts. In the Senate, Sena-
tors Hoar, of Massachusetts, Allison, of Iowa, Haw-
ley, of Connecticut, Wolcott, of Colorado, Perkins,
of California, Cockrell, of Missouri, and Butler, of
South Carolina, always supported the Commission
against unjust attack. Senator Gorman was natu-
rally the chief leader of the assaults upon the Com-
mission. Senators Harris, Plumb, Stewart, and
Ingalls were among his allies.

In each session the net result of the fight was an
increase in the appropriation for the Commission.
The most important increase was that obtained in
the first session of the 53d Congress. On this occa-
sion Mr. Lodge was no longer in the House, having
been elected to the Senate. The work of the Com-
mission had grown so that it was impossible to per-
form it without a great increase of force; and it
would have been impossible to have put into effect
the extensions of the classified service had this in-
crease not been allowed. In the House the Com-
mittee on Appropriations, of which Mr. Sayers was
chairman, allowed the increase, but it was stricken
out in the House itself after an acrimonious debate,
in which the cause of the law was sustained by
Messrs. Henderson and Hopkins, Mr. McCall, of
Massachusetts, Mr. Coombs, Mr. Grain, of Texas,

Civil Service Reform 199

Mr. Storer, of Ohio, and many others, while the
spoils-mongers were led by Messrs. Stockdale and
Williams, of Mississippi, Pendelton, of West
Virginia, Fithian, of Illinois, and others less im-
portant.

When the bill went over to the Senate, however,
Mr. Lodge, well supported by Messrs. Allison, Cock-
rell, Wolcott, and Teller, had the provision for the
increase of appropriation for the Commission re-
stored and increased, thereby adding by one-half to
the efficiency of the Commission's work. Had it
not been for this the Commission would have been
quite unable to have undertaken the extensions re-
cently ordered by President Cleveland.

It is noteworthy that the men who have done
most effective work for the law in Washington in
the departments, and more especially in the House
and Senate, are men of spotless character, who show
by their whole course in public life that they are not
only able and resolute, but also devoted to a high
ideal. Much of what they have done has received
little comment in public, because much of the work
in committee, and some of the work in the House,
such as making or combating points of order, and
pointing out the danger or merit of certain bills, is
not of a kind readily understood or appreciated by
an outsider ; yet no men have deserved better of the
country, for there is in American public life no one
other cause so fruitful of harm to the body politic
as the spoils system, and the legislators and admin-
istrative officers who have done the best work to-

200 Civil Service Refonn

ward its destruction merit a peculiar meed of praise
from all well-wishers of the Republic

I have spoken above of the good that would onne
from a thorough and intelligent knowledge as to
who were the friends and who were the foes of
the law in Washington* Dq)artmental officers, the
heads of btu'eaus, and, above aU, the G>mmissioners
themselves, should be carefully watched by all friends
of the reform. They should be supported when they
do well, and condemned when they do ill; and at-
tention should be called not only to what they do,
but to what they fail to do. To an even g^reater ex-
tent, of course, this applies to the President. As
regards the Senators and Congressmen also there is
urgent need of careful supervision by the friends
of the law. We need criticism by those who are
unable to do their part in action ; but the criticism,
to be useful must be both honest and intelligent,
and the critics must remember that the system has
its stanch friends and bitter foes among both party
men and men of no party — among Republicans,
Democrats, and Independents. Each Congressman
should be made to feel that it is his duty to support
the law, and that he will be held to account if he
fails to support it. Especially is it necessary to con-
centrate effort in working for each step of reform.
In legislative matters, for instance, there is need of
increase of appropriations for the Commission, and
there is a chance of putting through the bill to re-
form the Consular service. This has received sub-
stantial backing in the Senate, and has the support

Civil Service Reform 201

of the majority of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Instead of wasting efforts by a diffuse support of
eight or ten bills, it would be well to bend every
energy to securing the passage of the Consular bill ;
and to do this it is necessary to arouse not only the
Civil Service Reform Associations, but the Boards
of Trade throughout the country, and to make the
Congressmen and Senators feel individually the pres-
sure from those of their constituents who are re-
solved no longer to tolerate the peculiarly gross
manifestation of the spoils system which now ob-
tains in the consular service, with its attendant dis-
credit to the national honor abroad.

People sometimes grow a little downhearted
about the reform. When they feel in this mood
it would be well for them to reflect on what has
actually been gained in the past six years. By the
inclusion of the railway mail service, the smaller
free-delivery offices, the Indian School service, the
Internal Revenue service, and other less important
branches, the extent of the public service which is
under the protection of the law has been more than
doubled, and there are now nearly fifty thousand
employees of the Federal Government who have
been withdrawn from the degrading influences that
rule under the spoils system. This of itself is a
great success and a great advance, though, of course,
it ought only to spur us on to renewed effort. In
the fall of 1894 the people of the State of New
York, by a popular vote, put into their constitution
a provision providing for a merit system in the af-

aoa Civil Service Refonn

fairs of the State and its municipalities ; and the fol-
lowing spring the great city of Chicago voted, by
an overwhelming majority, in favor of applying in
Its municipal affairs the advanced and radical Civil
Service Reform Law, which had already passed the
Illinois L^slature. Undoubtedly, after every suc-
cess there comes a moment of reaction. The friends
of the reform grow temporarily lukewarm, or, be-
cause it fails to secure everything they hoped, they
neglect to lay proper stress upon all that it does se-
cure. Yet, in spite of all rebuffs, in spite of all dis-
appointments and opposition, the growth of the
principle of Civil Service reform has been contin-
ually more rapid, and every year has taken us
measurably nearer that ideal of pure and decent
government which is dear to the heart of every
honest American citizen.

II

ADMINISTERING THE NEW YORK
POLICE FORCE*

IN New York, in the fall of 1894, Tammany Hall
was overthrown by a coalition composed partly
of the regular Republicans, partly of anti-Tam-
many Democrats, and partly of Independents. Un-
der the latter head must be included a great many
men who in national politics habitually act with
one or the other of the two great parties, but who
feel that in municipal politics good citizens should
act independently. The tidal wave, which was run-
ning high against the Democratic party, was un-
doubtedly very influential in bringing about the anti-
Tammany victory ; but the chief factor in producing
the result was the widespread anger and disgust
felt by decent citizens at the corruption which, under
the sway of Tammany, had honeycombed every de-
partment of the city government, but especially the
police force. A few well-meaning people have at
times tried to show that this corruption was not so
very great. In reality it would be difficult to over-
estimate the utter rottenness of many branches of the
city administration. There were a few honorable
and high-minded Tammany officials, and there were

* Atlantic Monthly, September, 1897.

(203)

204 The New York Police Force

a few bureaus which were administered with more
or less efficiency, although dishonestly. But the
corruption had become so widespread as seriously to
impair the work of administration, and to bring us
back within measurable distance of the days of
Tweed.

The chief centre of corruption was the Police De-
partment. No man not intimately acquainted with
both the lower and humbler sides of New York life
— for there is a wide distinction between the two —
can realize how far this corruption extended. Ex-
cept in rare instances, where prominent politicians
made demands which could not be refused, both pro-
motions and appointments toward the close of Tam-
many rule were made almost solely for money, and
the prices were discussed with C3aiical frankness.
There was a well-recognized tariff of charges, rang-
ing from two or three hundred dollars for appoint-
ment as a patrolman, to twelve or fifteen thousand
dollars for promotion to the position of captain.
The money was reimbursed to those who paid it by
an elaborate system of blackmail. This was chiefly
carried on at the expense of gamblers, liquor-sellers,
and keepers of disorderly houses ; but every form of
vice and crime contributed more or less, and a great
many respectable people who were ignorant or timid
were blackmailed under pretence of forbidding or
allowing them to violate obscure ordinances and the
like. From top to bottom the New York police force
was utterly demoralized by the gangrene of such a
system, where venality and blackmail went hand in

The New York Police Force 1205

hand with the basest forms of low ward politics, and
where the policeman, the ward politician, the liquor-
seller, and the criminal alternately preyed on one
another and helped one another to prey on the gen-
eral public.

In May, 189^, I was made president of the newly
appointed police board, whose duty it was to cut out
the chief source of civic corruption in New York by
cleansing the police department. The police board
consisted of four members. All four of the new
men were appointed by Mayor Strong, the reform
Mayor, who had taken office in January.

With me was associated, as treasurer of the
Board, Mr. Avery D. Andrews. He was a Demo-
crat and I a Republican, and there were questions of
national politics on which we disagreed widely ; but
^uch questions could not enter into the administra-
tion of the New York police, if that administration
was to be both honest and efficient ; and as a matter
of fact, during my two years' service, Mr. Andrews
and I worked in absolute harmony on every impor-
tant question of policy which arose. The prevention
of blackmail and corruption, the repression of crime
and violence, safeguarding of life and property, se-
curing honest elections, and rewarding efficient and
punishing inefficient police service, are not, and can
not properly be made, questions of party difference.
In other words, such a body as the police force of
New York can be wisely and properly administered
only upon a non-partisan basis, and both Mr. An-
drews and myself were quite incapable of managing

2o6 The New York Police Force

it on any other. There were many men who helped
us in our work; and among them all, the man who
helped us most, by advice and counsel, by stalwart,
loyal friendship, and by ardent championship of all
that was good against all that was evil, was Jacob
A. Riis, the author of "How the Other Half Lives."
Certain of the difficulties we had to face were
merely those which confronted the entire reform ad-
ministration in its management of the municipality.
Many worthy people expected that this reform ad-
ministration would work an absolute revolution, not
merely in the government, but in the minds of the
citizens as a whole; and felt vaguely that they had
been cheated because there was not an immediate
cleansing of every bad influence in civic or social
life. Moreover, the different bodies forming the
victorious coalition felt the pressure of conflicting
interests and hopes. The mass of effective strength
was given by the Republican organization, and not
only all the enrolled party workers, but a great num-
ber of well-meaning Republicans who had no per-
sonal interest at stake, expected the administration
to be used to further the fortunes of their own party.
Another great body of the administration's support-
ers took a diametrically opposite view, and believed
that the administration should be administered with-
out the least reference whatever to party. In the-
ory they were quite right, and I cordially sympa-
thized with them ; but as a matter of fact the victory
could not have been won by the votes of this class
of people alone, and it was out of the question to put

♦The New York Police Force 207

these theories into complete effect. Like all other
men who actually try to do things instead of confin-
ing themselves to saying how they should be done,
the members of the new city government were
obliged to face the facts and to do the best they
could in the effort to get some kind of good result
out of the conflicting forces. They had to disre-
gard party so far as was possible ; and yet they could
not afford to disregard all party connections so ut-
terly as to bring the whole administration to grief.

In addition to these two large groups of sup-
porters of the administration, there were other
groups, also possessing influence, who expected to
receive recognition distinctly as Democrats, but as
anti-Tammany Democrats; and such members of
any victorious coalition are always sure to over-
estimate their own services, and to fed ill-treated.

It is of course an easy thing to show on paper
that the municipal administration should have been
administered without the slightest reference to na-
tional party lines, and if the bulk of the people saw
things with entire clearness the truth would seem
so obvious as to need no demonstration. But as
a matter of fact the bulk of the people who voted
the new administration into power neither saw this
nor realized it, and in politics, as in life generally,
conditions must be faced as they are, and not as
they ought to be. The regular Democratic organi-
zation, not only in the city but in the State, was
completely under the dominion of Tammany Hall
and its allies, and they fought us at every step wit'

2o8 The New York Police Force

wholly unscrupulous hatred. In the State and the
city alike the Democratic campaign was waged
against the reform administration in New York.
The Tammany officials who were still left in power
in the city, headed by the Controller, Mr. Fitch,
did everything in their power to prevent the effi-
cient administration of the government. The Demo-
cratic members of the Legislature acted as their
faithful allies in all such efforts. Whatever was
accomplished by the reform administration — ^and
a very great deal was accomplished — was due to
the action of the Republican majority in the con-
stitutional convention, and especially to the Repub-
lican Governor, Mr. Morton, and the Republican
majority in the Legislature, who enacted laws giv-
ing to the newly chosen Mayor, Mr. Strong, the
great powers necessary for properly administering
his office. Without these laws the Mayor would
have been very nearly powerless. He certainly
could not have done a tenth part of what actually
was done.

Now, of course, the Republican politicians who
gave Mayor Strong all these powers, in the teeth
of violent Democratic opposition to every law for
the betterment of civic conditions in New York,
ought not, under ideal conditions, to have expected
the slightest reward. They should have been con-
tented with showing the public that their only pur-
pose was to serve the public, and that the Repub-
lican party wished no better reward than the con-
sciousness of having done its duty by the State

iThe New York Police Force 209

and the city. But as a whole they had not reached
such a standard. There were some who had reached
it; there were others who, though perfectly honest,
and wishing to see good government prosper, yet
felt that somdiow it ought to be combined with
party advantage of a tangible sort; and finally, there
were yet others who were not honest at all and
cared nothing for the victory unless it resulted in
some way to their own personal advantage. In
short, the problem presented was of the kind which
usually is presented when dealing with men as a
mass. The Mayor and his administration had to
keep in touch with the Rq)ublican party or they
could have accomphshed nothing ; and on the other
hand there was much that the Republican machine
asked which they could not do, because a surrender
on certain vital points meant the abandonment of
the effort to obtain good administration.

The undesirability of breaking with the Repub-
lican organization was shown by what happened in
the administration of the police department This
being the great centre of power was the especial
object of the Republican machine leaders. Toward
the close of Tammany rule, of the four Police Com-
missioners, two had been machine Republicans,
whose actions were in no wise to be distinguished
from those of their Tammany colleagues; and im-
mediately after the new board was appointed to
office the machine got through the Legislature the
so-called bi-partisan or Lexow law, under which
the department is at present administered; and a

2IO The New York Police Force

more foolish or vicious law was never enacted by
any legislative body. It modeled the government
of the police force somewhat on the lines of the
Polish parliament, and it was avowedly designed to
make it difficult to get effective action. It provided
for a four-headed board, so that it was difficult to
get a majority anyhow; but, lest we should get
such a majority, it gave each member power to veto
the actions of his colleagues in certain very im-
portant matters; and, lest we should do too much
when we were unanimous, it provided that the
chief, our nominal subordinate, should have entirely
independent action in the most important matters,
and should be practically irremovable, except for
proved corruption; so that he was responsible to
nobody. The Mayor was similarly hindered from
removing any Police Commissioner, so that when
one of our colleagues began obstructing the work
of the board, and thwarting its effort to reform the
force, the Mayor in vain strove to turn him out.
In short, there was a complete divorce of power
and responsibility, and it was exceedingly difficult
either to do anything, or to place anywhere the
responsibility for not doing it.

If by any reasonable concessions, if, indeed,
by the performance of any act not incompatible
with our oaths of office, we could have stood on
good terms with the machine, we would certainly
have made the effort, even at the cost of sacri-
ficing many of our ideals; and in almost any other
department we could probably have avoided a

The New York Police Force 2n

break, but in the police force such a compromise
was not possible. What was demanded of us usu-
ally took some such form as the refusal to enforce
certain laws, or the protection of certain law-break-
ers, or the promotion of the least fit men to posi-
tions of high power and grave responsibility; and
on such points it was not possible to yield. We
were obliged to treat all questions that arose purely
on their merits, without reference to the desires of
the politicians. We went into this course with our
eyes open, for we knew the trouble it would cause
us personally, and, what was far more important,
the way in which our efforts for reform would con-
sequently be hampered. However, there was no al-
ternative, and we had to abide by the result. We
had counted the cost before we adopted our course,
and we followed it resolutely to the end. We
could not accomplish all that we should have liked
to accomplish, for we were shackled by preposterous
legislation, and by the opposition and intrigues of
the basest machine politicians, which cost us the
support, sometimes of one, and sometimes of both,
of ,our colleagues. Nevertheless, the net result of
our two years of work was that we did more to
increase the efficiency and honesty of the police
department than had ever previously been done in
its history.

But a decent people will have to show by em-
phatic action that they are in the majority if they
wish this result to be permanent; for under such a
law as the "bi-partisan" law it is almost impossible

212 The New York Police Force

to keep the department honest and efficient for any
length of time; and the machine politicians, by their
opposition outside the board, and by the aid of any
tool or ally whom they can get on the board, can
always hamper and crii^le the honest members of
the board, no matter how resolute and able the lat-
ter may be, if they do not have an aroused and
determined public opinion behind them.

Besides suffering, in aggravated form, from the
difficulties which beset the course of the entire ad-
ministraticm, the police board had. to encounter — and
honest and efficient police boards must always en-
counter — certain special and peculiar difficulties. It
is not a pleasant thing to deal with criminals and
purveyors of vice. It is very rough work, and it
can not always be done in a nice manner. The man
with the night stick, the man in the blue coat
with the helmet, can keep order and repress open
violence on the streets; but most kinds of crime and
vice are ordinarily carried on furtively and by
stealth, perhaps at night, perhaps behind closed
doors. It is possible to reach them only by the
employment of the man in plain clothes, the de-
tective. Now the function of the detective is pri-
marily that of the spy, and it is always easy to
arouse feeling against a spy. It is absolutely nec-
essary to employ him. Ninety per cent of the most
dangerous criminals and purveyors of vice can not
be reached in any other way. But die average citi-
zen who does not think deeply fails to realize the
necessity ior any such en^loyment In a vague way

The New York Police Force 213

he desires vice and crime put down; but, also in a
vague way, he objects to the only possible means by
which they can be put down. It is easy to mislead
him into denouncing what is necessarily done in or-
der to carry out the very policy for which he is
clamoring. The Tammany officials of New York,
headed by the Controller, made a systematic effort
to excite public hostility against the police for their
warfare on vice. The law-breaking liquor-seller,
the keeper of disorderly houses, and the gambler, had
been influential allies of Tammany, and head con-
tributors to its campaign chest. Naturally Tam-
many fought for them; and the effective way in
which to carry on such a fight was to portray witK
gross exaggeration and misstatement the methods
necessarily employed by every police force which
honestly endeavors to do its work. The methods
are unpleasant, just as the methods employed in any
surgical operation are unpleasant ; and the Tammany
champions were able to arouse more or less feeling
against the police board for precisely the same reason
that a century ago it was easy to arouse what were
called "doctors' mobs*' against surgeons who cut
up dead bodies. In neither case is the operation at-
tractive, and it is one which readily lends itself to
denunciation; but in both cases it is necessary if
there is a real intention to get at the disease. Tam-
many of course found its best allies in the sensa-
tional newspapers. Of all the forces that tend for
evil in a great city like New York, probably none
are so potent as the sensational papers. Until one

214 The New York Police Force

has had experience with them it is difficult to realize
the reckless indifference to truth or decency dis-
I^yed by papers such as the two that have the
largest circulation in New York City. Scandal
forms the breath of die nostrils of sudi paq^ers, and
they are quite as ready to create as to describe it.
To sustain law and order is humdrum, and does not
readily lend itself to flaunting woodcuts; but if the
editor will stoop, and make his subordinates stoop,
to raking the gutters of human depravity, to uphold-
ing the wrong-doer, and furiously assailing what is
upright and honest, he can make money, just as
other types of pander make it The man who is to
do honorable work in any form of civic politics must
make up his mind (and if he is a man of properly
robust character hewill make it up without difficulty)
to treat the assaults of papers like these with abso-
lute indifference, and to go his way unheeding. In-
deed he will have to make up his mind to be criti-
cised, sometimes justly, and more often unjustly,
even by decent people; and he must not be so thin-
skinned as to mind such criticism overmuch.

In administering the police force we found, as
might be expected, that there was no need of genius,
nor indeed of any very unusual qualities. What was
needed was exercise of the plain, ordinary virtues,
of a rather commonplace type, which all good citi-
zens should be expected to possess. Common-sense,
common honesty, courage, energy, resolution, readi-
ness to learn and a desire to be as pleasant with
everybody as was compatible with a strict perform-

The New York Police Force 215

ing of duty — these were the qualities most called
for. We soon found that, in spite of the widespread
corruption which had obtained in the New York
Police Department, the bulk of the men were heartily
desirous of being honest. There were some who
were incurably dishonest, just as there were some
who had remained decent in spite of terrific tempta-
tion and pressure; but the great mass came in be-
tween. Although not possessing the stamina to war
against corruption when the odds seemed wellnigh
hopeless, they were nevertheless heartily glad to be
decent and to welcome the change to a system under
which they were rewarded for doing well, and pun-
ished for doing ill.

Our methods for restoring order and discipline
were simple, and indeed so were our methods for se-
curing efficiency. We made frequent personal in-
spections, especially at night, turning up anywhere,
at any time. We thus speedily got an idea of whom
among our upper subordinates we could trust and
whom we could not. We then proceeded to punish
those guilty of shortcomings, and to reward those
who did well, refusing to pay any heed whatever
in either case to anything except the man's own
character and record. A very few of these promo-
tions and dismissals sufficed to show our subordi-
nates that at last they were dealing with superiors
who meant what they said, and that the days of po-
litical "pull" were over while we had the power.
The effect was immediate. The decent men took
heart, and those who were not decent feared longer

2i6 The New York Police Force

to offend. The morale of the entire force improved
steadily.

A similar course was followed in reference to the
relations between the police and citizens generally.
There had formerly been much complaint of the
brutal treatment by police of innocent citizens. This
was stopped peremptorily by the simple expedient of
dismissing from the force the first two or three men
fotmd guilty of brutality. On the other hand, we
made the force understand that in the event of any
emergency requiring them to use their weapons
against either a mob or an individual criminal, the
police board backed them up without reservation.
Our sympathy was for the friends, and not the foes,
of order. If a mob threatened violence we were
glad to have the mob hurt. If a criminal showed
fight we expected the officer to use any weapon that
was necessary to overcome him on the instant; and
even, if it became necessary, to take life. All that
the board required was to be convinced that the ne-
cessity really existed. We did not possess a particle
of that maudlin sympathy for the criminal, disor-
derly, and lawless classes which is such a particu-
larly unhealthy sign of social development; and
we were bound that the improvement in the fighting
efficiency of the police should go hand in hand with
the improvement in their moral tone.

To break up the system of blackmail and corrup-
tion was less easy. It was not at all difficult to pro-
tect decent people in their rights, and this was ac-
complished at once. But the criminal who is black-

The New York Police Force 217

mailed has a direct interest in paying the black-
mailer, and it is not easy to get information about
it. Nevertheless, we put a complete stop to most of
the blackmail by the simple process of rigorously
enforcing the laws, not only against crime, but
against vice.

It was the enforcement of the liquor law which
caused most excitement. In New York we suffer
from the altogether too common tendency to make
any law which a certain section of the community
wants, and then to allow that law to be more or less
of a dead letter if any other section of the commu-
nity objects to it. The multiplication of laws by the
Legislature, and their partial enforcement by the
executive authorities, go hand in hand, and oflfer
one of the many serious problems with which we are
confronted in striving to better civic conditions.
New York State felt tiiat liquor should not be sold
on Simday. The larger part of New York City
wished to drink liquor on Sunday. Any man who
studies the social condition of the poor knows that
liquor works more ruin than any other one cause.
He knows also, however, that it is simply imprac-
ticable to extirpate the habit entirely, and that to at-
tempt too much often merely results in accomplish-
ing too little ; and he knows, moreover, that for a
man alone to drink whiskey in a bar-room is one
thing, and for men with their families to drink light
wines or beer in respectable restaurants is quite a
different thing. The average citizen, who doesn't
think at all, and the average politician of the baser
10 Vol. I.

ai8 The New York Police Force

sort, who only thinks about his own personal advan-
tage, find it easiest to disregard these facts, and to
pass a liquor law which will please the temperance
people, and then trust to the police department to
enforce it with such laxity as to please the intem-
perate.

The results of this pleasing system were evident
in New York when our board came into power. The
Sunday liquor law was by no means a dead letter in
New York City. On the contrary, no less than eight
thousand arrests for its violation had been made
under the Tammany regime the year before we
came in. It was very much alive ; but it was only
executed against those who either had no political
pull or who refused to pay money. The liquor busi-
ness does not stand on the same footing with other
occupations. It always tends to produce criminality
in the population at large, and law-breaking among
the saloon-keepers themselves. It is absolutely nec-
essary to supervise it rigidly, and impose restrictions
upon the traffic. In large cities the traffic can not
be stopped; but the evils can at least be minimized.

In New York the saloon-keepers have always stood
high among professional politicians. Nearly two-
thirds of the political leaders of Tammany Hall have,
at one time or another, been in the liquor business.
The saloon is the natural club and meeting place for
the ward heelers and leaders, and the bar-room poli-
tician is one of the most common and best recognized
factors in local political government The saloon-
keepers are always hand in glove with the profes-

THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE FORCE

Mr. Roosevelt presiding at a meeting of the Commissioners at Police Headquarters

'■ • ,11

■-• ifi.i :

r !.M III I <)'
!:!.i- i« ii«*'
■ hu iit|ii<M

The New York Police Force 219

sional politicians* and occitpy toward thetii a posi-
tion such as is not held by any other class of ttieii.
The influence they wield in local politics has always
been very great, and until our board took office no
man ever dared seriously to threaten them for their
flagrant violaticwis of the law. The powerful and
influential saloon-keeper was glad to see his neigh-
bors closed, for it gave him business. On the other
hand, a corrupt police captain, or the corrupt politi-
cian who controlled him, could always extort money
from a saloon-keeper by threatening to close him and
let his neighbor remain open. Gradually the gree<l
of corrupt police oflicials and of corrupt politicians
grew by what it fed on, until they began to black-
mail all but the very most influential liquor-sellers;
and as liquor-sellers were very numerous, and the
profits of the liquor business great, the amount col-
lected was enormous.

The reputable saloon-keepers themselves found
this condition of blackmail and political favoritism
almost intolerable. The law which we found on the
statute books had been put on by a Tammany Legis-
lature three years before we took office. A couple
of months after we took office, Mr. J. P. Smith, the
editor of the liquor-dealers' organ, the Wine and
Spirit Gazette, gave out the following interview,
which is of such an extraordinary character that I
insert it almost in full :

"Governor Flower, as well as the Legislature of
1892, was elected upon distinct pledges that relief
would be given by the Democratic party to the liquor-

lie The New York Police Force

•fcaler^, eipedally of the cities of the Scate^ In ac-
cordance with this promise a Scaidav-opcmng clanse
was inserted m the excise bill of 1892. Governor
Flower tfien sard that he coald not approve the Smt-
day-opening' clause : wherctrpoo the Liqnor Dealers'
Association, which had charge of the bilL stmck the
Stmday-opcxiing' clanse ooL After Governor Hni had
been elected for the second term I had several in-
terviews with him on th^t very subject. He told me,
^You know I am the friend of the liquor-dealcrs and
will ^o to almost any length to help them and give
them relief; but do not ask me to recommend to the
Ijeghlaturt the pSLSSstgt of the law opening the sa-
loons on Sunday, I can not do it, for it will ruin
the Democratic party in the State,' He gave the
game interview to various members of the State
Lirjuor Dealers' Association, who waited upon him
for the purpose of getting relief from the blackmail
of the police, stating that the lack of having the
Sunrlay question properly regulated was at the bot-
ifym of the trouble. Blackmail had been brought to
ftuch a state of perfection, and had become so op-
pfCftftivc to the liquor-dealers themselves, that they
amimunicated first with Governor Hill and then
with Mr Croker. The Wine and Spirit Gazette had
taken up the subject l^cause of gross discrimination
made by the police in the enforcement of the Sunday-
(:lr;.Hing law. The paper again and again called upon
llic iKih'cc commissioners to either uniformly enforce
Ihc! law or uniformly disregard it. A committee of
lh(! ('cntral Association of Liquor Dealers of this

The New York Police Force 211

city then took up the matter and called upcm Police
Commissioner Martin.* An agreement was then
made between the leaders of Tammany Hall and the
liquor-dealers, according to which the monthly black-
mail paid to the police should be discontinued in
return for political support.^ In other words, the
retail dealers should bind themselves to solidly sup-
port the Tammany ticket in consideration of the dis-
continuance of the monthly blackmail by the police.
This agreement was carried out Now what was the
consequence ? If the liquor-dealer, after the monthly
blackmail ceased, showed any signs of independence,
the Tammany Hall district leader would give the tip
to the police captain, and that man would be pulled
and arrested on the following Sunday."

Continuing, Mr. Smith inveighed against the law,
but said:

"The (present) police ccmimissioners are honestly
endeavoring to have the law impartially carried out.
They are no respecters of persons. And our in-
formation from all classes of liquor-dealers is that
the rich and the poor, the influential and the unin-
fluential, are required equally to obey the law."

There is really some difficulty in commenting upon
the statements of this interview, statements which
were never denied.

The law was not in the least a dead-letter; it was
enforced, but it was corruptly and partially enforced.
It was a prominent factor in the Tammany scheme

* My predecessor in the Presidency of the Police Board.
t The italics are my own.

t:-!^

^^^ew York Police Force

tinder stoo<3. ^Tt^^^t: we had not the slightest intei

?* ^^^h^cci^ ^^> threatened, or cajoled out of fol

^^^ 4--call-v- ^"^^^ ^which we had laid down, resist

P^ ^^^ ^^^^^^sed. During the year after we

cL tid^y li^:::! '*^^^*^"^^"ber of arrests for violation oi

eV ^^^ V:^ ^^^^ law sank to about one-half of

^le ; ^^ci ^^»:^ during the last year of the Tamr

t^ef^^s x^i^^a^^^^^ "^^^ saloons were practically cl

oen- VV^^^ ^^^r Tammany most of them had

g tiones -ti ^^^^ ^^^opted no new methods, save in S(

not enfox:— ^^ ^^^^xild be called a new method. W<

J etifor^^:^ ^^^ ^^^ ^Vie law with unusual severity ; we r

^^^icb as. ^^^ it against the man with a pull, ju

^^-j^c^ed tc:^ ^S'^.inst the man without a pull. W

^t-eSL^^^^ _ ^^^^^eriminate in favor of influential

tVi^ ^i^^^^::::^ ^^-^ J^lie professional politicians of low

pap^^^' ^^^mr-^ ^ filers, the editors of some German n

us ^^'^^^ ^^ ^^ the sensational press generally, atta

^^ ^^^'^^^^^^ ^^rocity which really verged on insa

tiotij airv ^^^ ^^>^t: our way without regarding this op

that a \^^ ^^^ve a very wholesome lesson to the t

\X, wa^ ,^_^^ ^^^ should not be put on the statute boo

excise X^^^^^ meant to be enforced, and that eve

if tV\^ '^r^^^'^''^^ could be honestly enforced in New '

and ^>^^:::^.^^^lic officials so desired. The rich bre

fist o-^ ^^ ^^T"-sellers, who had made money hand

n^va.1:-^^^ '^^^ir^lating the excise law with the corrupt

^^^^Vv-^^,. ^^f the police, raved with anger, and e

^'^^^^XX politician and newspaper in the city

''^^^^^.'V;^-^ ^^rnorous assistance; but the poor man,

^^ tlie poor man's wife and children, bem

ii4 The Ncir Yotk Fdlkc Fcmat

^tsy gn^j hj wiESt we dsdu Tlic hrwfiitail
gcoGS ioand t&at ttsGr Moodsqr labors vcce 1

ticct in csfcscs of iajttnr dot to dnmkok brawfe; tbc
work of tiie nskgistnttcs wiuo sat in tbc citj courts
on MoadsLj for Hot tral of the offenders of tbc pre-
ctfiing twentr-four hoars was oorrcspondinglf de-
creased ; wfaik nanT a tenemenl-hoase tzmilT spent
Sund2Ej in the u juuliy becanae for the first time the
head of the tamilj coold not nse up his mooey in
getting drunk. The one afi-inqwftant ekment in
good citizenship in our country is obedience to law.
and nothing is more needed than the resolute en-
forcement of law. This we gare

There was no species of mendacity to which our
opponents did not resort in the efiFort to Ineak us
down in our purpose. For weeks they eagerly re-
peated the tale that the saloons were as wide open
as ever; but they finally abandoned this when the
counsel for the Liquor Dealers' Assodaticm ad-
mitted in open court, at the time when we secured
the conviction of thirty of his clients and thereby
brought the fight to an end, that over nine-tenths of
the liquor-dealers had been rendered bankrupt be-
cause we had stopped that ill^^al trade which gave
them the best portion of their revenue They then
took the line that by devoting our attention to en-
forcing the liquor law we permitted crime to in-
crease. This, of course, offered a very congenial
field for newspapers like the World, which exploited
it to the utmost ; all the more readily since the mere

The New York Police Force 225

reiteration of the falsehood tended to encourage
criminals, and so to make it not a falsehood. For
a time the cry was not without influence, even with
decent people, especially if they belonged to the class
of the timid rich ; but it simply wasn't true, and so
this bubble went down stream with the others. For
six or eight months the cry g^ew, first louder, then
lower ; and then it died away. A commentary upon
its accuracy was furnished toward the end of our
administration; for in February, 1897, ^^e Judge
who addressed the grand jury of the month was able
to congratulate them upon the fact that there was
at that time less crime in New York relatively to
the population than ever before; and this held true
for our two years' service.

In reorganizing the force the Board had to make,
and did make, more promotions, more appointments,
and more dismissals than had ever before been made
in the same length of time. We were so hampered
by the law that we were not able to dismiss many of
the men whom we should have dismissed, but we
did turn out 200 men — more than four times as
many as had ever been turned out in the same
length of time before; all of them being dismissed
after formal trial, and after having been g^ven full
opportunity to be heard in their own defence . We
appointed about 1,700 men all told — ^again more than
four times as many as ever before ; for we were al-
lowed a large increase of the police force by law.
We made 130 promotions; more than had been
made in the six preceding years.

2i^ The New York Police Force

A/i thi!it work was dooe in strictest accord with
what we have grown to apeak of as the prfnrfptn of
civil service retomL In making ftismisftals we paid
heed merdy to the man's ffiVcicnry and past record,
refusing to consider outside pressure; ondcr die okl
regime no pcJiceman with sufiki e ui i mhrmT be-
hind him was ever dismissed, no oBiter what his
offence. In making promotions we took into ac-
c^itint not C4)ly the man's general record, his taith-
fulne?^^, indnstry and vigilance, but also his personal
prowes?^ as shown in any special feat of daring,
whether in the arresting of criminals or in the sav-
wff of life — for the police ser>-icc is military in
character, and we wished to encourage the military
virtues. In making appointments we found that it
was practicable to employ a system of rigid com-
petitive examinations, which, as finally perfected,
comhinc<J a very severe physical examination with
a mental examination such as could be passed by
any man who had attended one of our public
scho^^ls. Of course there was also a rigid investiga-
ti^/n of character. Theorists have often sneered at
civil service reform as "impracticable;" and I am
very far from asserting that written competitive
examinations are always applicable, or that they
ni«'iy not sometimes l)e merely stop-gaps, used only
Iiccfiiise tlicy are letter than the methods of appoint-
ing through political indorsement; but most cer-
tainly the system worked admirably in the Police
1 department. We got the best lot of recruits for
pjif rolmcn that had ever l^en obtained in the history

The New York Police Force 227

of the force, and we did just as well in our exam-
inations for matrons and police surgeons. The up-
lifting of the force was very noticeable, both physi-
cally and mentally. The best men we got were those
who had served for three years or so in the Army
or Navy. Next to these came the railroad men.
One noticeable feature of the work was that we
greatly raised the proportion of native-bom, until,
of the last hundred appointed, ninety-four per cent,
were Americans by birth. Not once in a hundred
times did we know the politics of the appointee, and
we paid as little heed to this as to their religion.

Another of our important tasks was seeing that
the elections were carried on honestly. Under the
old Tammany rule the cheating was gross and flag-
rant, and the police were often deliberately used to
facilitate fraudulent practices at the polls. This
came about in part from the very low character of
the men put in as election officers. By conducting
a written examination of the latter, and supplement-
ing this by a careful inquiry into their character, in
which we invited any decent outsiders to assist, we
very distinctly raised their calibre. To show how
necessary our examinations were, I may mention that
before each election held under us we were obliged
to reject, for moral or mental shortcomings, over
a thousand of the men whom the regular party or-
ganizations, exercising their legal rights, proposed
as election officers. We then merely had to make
the police thoroughly understand that their sole duty
was to guarantee an honest election, and that they

22S The New York Police Force

would be ponished with the utmost rigor if thqr in-
terfered with honest dtizens on the one hand, or
failed to prevent fraud and violence on the other.
The result was that the elections of 1895 ^^ 1896
were by far the most hc»iest and orderly ever held
in New York City.

There were a number of odier ways in whidi
we sought to reform the police force, less important,
but nevertheless very important We paid particu-
lar heed to putting a premium on ^)ecially meritori-
ous ccMiduct, by awarding certificates of honorable
mention, and medals, where we were unable to pro-
mote. We introduced a system of pistol practice
by which, for the first time, the policemen were
brought to a reasonable standard of efficiency in
handling their revolvers. The Bertillon system for
the identification of criminals was introduced. A
bicycle squad was organized with remarkaUe results,
this squad speedily becoming a kind of carps d' elite,
whose individual members distinguished themselves
not only by their devotion to duty, but by repeated
exhibitions of remarkable daring and skill. One
important bit of reform was abolishing the tramp
lodging-houses, which had originally been started
in the police stations, in a spirit of unwise philan-
thropy. These tramp lodging-houses, not being
properly supervised, were mere nurseries for pauper-
ism and crime, tramps and loafers of every shade
thronging to the city every winter to enjoy their
benefits. We abolished them, a municipal lodging-
house being substituted. Here all homeless wan-

The New York Police Force 229

derers were received, forced to bathe, given night-
clothes before going to bed, and made to work next
morning, and in addition they were so closely super-
vised that habitual tramps and vagrants were speed-
ily detected and apprehended.

There was a striking increase in tiie honesty of
the force, and there was a like increase in its effi-
ciency. When we took office it is not too mtich to
say that the great majority of tiie citizans of New
York were firmly convinced that no police force
could be both honest and efficient. They felt it to
be part of the necessary order of things that a
polic^nan should be corrupt, and they were con-
vinced that the most efficient way of warring against
certain forms of crime — notably crinoes against per-
son and property — was by enlisting the services of
other criminals, and of purveyors of vice generally,
giving them immunity in return for tiaeir aid. Be-
fore we took power the ordinary purveyor of vice
was allowed to ply his or her trade unmolested,
partly in consideraticMO of paying blackmail to the
police, partly in consideration of giving infcHrmation
about any criminal who belonged to the unporotected
classes. We at once broke up this whole business
of blackmail and protection, and made war upc»i all
criminals ahke, instead of getting the assistance of
half in warring on the other hall Nevertheless, so
great was the improvement in the spirit of the force,
that, ahhough deprived of their former vicious allies
they actually did better work than ever before
against those criminals who threatened life and

i>c The Xror Yirk Fzi^cz FdCCK

yr'.pKTj keisav7vr t^ tie gcpnfarnr, jcjpe r cin
'^t 'tf^ifjicK " A ' r:if ' rq ?t 'Uxtti^ -,iir y:!rwin?K girrr
rne S^/ar't *iian 3i arrr orr-rciis rTro jars t"'
TTtT"^ m^scf.rj :n r»-xnt "frncs: irai ±e xtail iiuiiMc?
of ^rr*s:> .f trrnnnals Tjcr^sstr^ irirle rac 'iin'hn
ot ':a;v=^ n vnich no arrest ioUcwed. ±e vtiiTrnii?Wi"cc
vf 'rrrtnft ^itscroatfL The ciBrfr. ^e burgm aesriy
'iMjrri« the ntmifaer of arrests narie d-crpered tt^E:

365 'T'yiT-rrrtior.^ r.f feicns anri 2:5 ricrriciiccs fcr
m:.v:«rftanor'*. ai* a^nst 269 and 105 rcsgecrrrciy
i^jr th« pr«r/:^jf::* v«iar. >j: the saine rrrre every at-
tempt at riot or disot^icr was Kimniarilj dscdcecL
anri all gin^ of -nolent criminals brongiit into m-
ineriiate ^abjection: while 00 the odier hand the
immetwc mass meetings and political parades were
handled with ?tich care that not a single case of
clubbing of any innocent citizen was reported.

The rcstilt of otir labors was of valne to the citr,
for wc gave the citizens better protection tlian they
had ever before received, and at the same time cot
out the corruption which was eating away civic
morality. W'e showed conclusively that it was pos-
sible to combine both honesty and efficiency in hand-
ling the police. We were attacked with the most
bitter animosity by every sensational newspaper
and every politician of the baser sort, not because
of our shortcomings, but because of what we did
that was good. We enforced the laws as they were
on the statute books, we broke up blackmail, wc kept
down the spirit of disorder, and repressed rascality.

The New York Police Force 231

and we administered the force with an eye single to
the welfare of the city. In doing this we encoun-
tered, as we had expected, the venomous opposition
of all men whose interest it was that corruption
should continue, or who were of such dull morality
that they were not willing to see honesty triumph at
the cost of strife.

Ill

HOW NOT TO HELP OUR POORER
BROTHER ♦

AFTER the publication of my article in the Sep-
tember Review of Reviews on the Vice-Presi-
dential candidates, I received the following very
manly, and very courteous, letter from the Honor-
able Thomas Watson, then the candidate with Mr.
Bryan on the Populist ticket for Vice-President I
publish it with his permission:

Hon. Theodore Roosevelt:

Tt pains me to be misunderstood by diose whose
jfoofl opinion I respect, and upon reading your
trenchant article in the September number of the
Rnnetv of Reviews the impulse was strong to write
to you.

When you take your stand for honester govern-
ment and for jitstcr laws in New York, as you have
so courageously done, your motives must be the
same as mine — for you do not need the money your
office gives you. I can understand, instinctively,
what you feel — what your motives are. You merely
obey a law of your nature which puts you into mor-
tal combat with what you think is wrong. You fight

♦ Review of Reviews, January, 1897.

Our Poorer Brother 233

because your own sense of self-respect and self-
loyalty compels you to %ht. Is not this so?

If in Georgia and throughout the South we have
conditions as intolerable as those that surround you
in New York, can yoa not realize why I make war
upon them?

Tammany itself has grown great because mis-
taken leaders of the Southern Democracy catered to
its Kellys and Crokers and feared to defy them.

The first "roast" I ever got from the Democratic
press of this State followed a speech I had made de-
nouncing Tammany, and denouncing the craven
leaders who obeyed Tammany.

It IS astonishing how one honest man may hon-
estly misjudge another.

My creed does not lead me to dislike the men who
run a bank, a factory, a railroad, or a foundry. I
do not hate a man for owning a bond, and having
a bank account, or having cash loaned at interest.

Upon the other hand, I think each should make
all the profit in business he fairly can ; but I do be-
lieve that the banks should not exercise the sov-
ereign power of issuing money, and I do believe that
all special privil^fes granted, and all exemption from
taxation, work infinite harm. I do believe that the
wealth of the Republic is practically free from fed-
eral taxation, and that the burdens of government
fall upon the shoulders of those least able to bear
them.

If you could spend an evening with me among
my books and amid my family, I feel quite sure

234 Our Poorer Brother

you would not again class me with those who make
war upon the ''decencies and elegancies of civilized
life." And if you could attend one of my great
political meetings in Georgia, and see the good men
and good women who believe in Populism you
would not continue to class them with those who
vote for candidates upon the ''no undershirt" plat-
form.

In other words, if you understood me and mine
your judgment of us would be different

The "cracker" of the South is simply the man
who did not buy slaves to do his work. He did it
all himself — like a man. Some of our best generals
in war, and magistrates in peace, have come from
the "cracker" class. As a matter of fact, however,
my own people, from my father back to Revolution-
ary times, were slave-owners and land-owners. In
the first meeting held in Georgia to express sympathy
with the Boston patriots my great-great-grandfather
bore a prominent part, and in the first State L^sla-
ture ever convened in Georgia one of my ancestors
was the representative of his county.

My grandfather was wealthy, and so was my
father. My boyhood was spent in the idleness of
a rich man's son. It was not until I was in my teens
that misfortune overtook us, sent us homeless into
the world, and deprived me of the thorough collegi-
ate training my father intended for me.

At sixteen years of age I thus had to commence
life moneyless, and the weary years I spent among
the poor, the kindness I received in their homes, and

Our Poorer Brother 235

the acquaintance I made with the hardship of their
lives, gave me that profound sympathy for them
which I yet retain — though I am no longer poor
myself.

Pardon the liberty I take in intruding this letter
upon you. I have followed your work in New York
with admiring sympathy, and have frequently writ-
ten of it in my paper. While hundreds of miles sep-
arate us, and our tasks and methods have been widely
different, I must still believe that we have much in
common, and that the ruling force which actuates
us both is to challenge wrong and to fight the bat-
tles of good government.

Very respectfully yours,
(Signed) Thos. E. Watson.

Thompson, Ga.
August 30, 1896,

I intended to draw a very sharp line between Mr.
Watson and many of those associated with him in
the same movement; and certain of the sentences
which he quotes as if they were meant to apply to
him were, on the contrary, meant to apply generally
to the agitators who proclaimed both him and Mr.
Br5ran as their champions, and especially to many of
the men who were running on the Populist tickets in
different States. To Mr. Watson's own sincerity
and courage I thought I had paid full tribute, and if
I failed in any way I wish to make good that failure.
I was in Washington when Mr. Watson was in Con-
gress, and I know how highly he was esteemed per-

2j6 Our Poorer Brother

sonally by his colleagues, even by those differing
very widely from him in matters of principle. The
stanchest friends of order and decent government
fully and cordially recognized Mr. Watson's hon-
esty and good faith — ^men, for instance, like Senator
Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Representative Bel-
lamy Storer, of Ohio. Moreover, I sympathize as
little as Mr. Watson with denunciation of the
"cracker," and I may mention that one of my fore-
fathers was the first Revolutionary Governor of
Georgia at the time that Mr. Watson's ancestor sat
in the first Revolutionary Legislature of the State.
Mr. Watson himself embodies not a few of the very
attributes the lack of which we feel so keenly in many
of our public men. He is brave, he is earnest, he is
honest, he is disinterested. For many of the wrongs
which he wishes to remedy, I, too, believe that a
remedy can be found, and for this purpose I would
gladly strike hands with him. All this makes it a
matter of the keenest regret that he should advocate
certain remedies that we deem even worse than the
wrongs complained of, and should strive in dark-
ling ways to correct other wrongs, or rather inequali-
ties and sufferings, which exist, not because of the
shortcomings of society, but because of the existence
of human nature itself.

There are plenty of ugly things about wealth and
its possessors in the present age, and I suppose there
have been in all ages. There are many rich people
who so utterly lack patriotism, or show such sordid
and selfish traits of character, or lead such mean

Our Poorer Brother 237

and vacuous lives, that all right-minded men must
look upon them with angry contempt; but, on the
whole, the thrifty are apt to be better citizens than
the thriftless ; and the worst capitaUst can not harm
laboring men as they are harmed by demagogies.
As the people of a State grow more and more intelli-
gent the State itself may be able to play a larger and
larger part in the life of the commimity, while at
the same time individual effort may be given freer
and less restricted movement along certain lines;
but it is utterly unsafe to give the State more than
the minimum of power just so long as it contains
masses of men who can be moved by the pleas and
denunciations of the average Socialist leader of to-
day. There may be better schemes of taxation than
those at present employed ; it may be wise to devise
inheritance taxes, and to impose r^^ations on the
kinds of business which can be carried on only under
the especial protection of the State ; and where there
is a real abuse by wealth it needs to be, and in this
country generally has been, promptly done away
with; but the first lesson to teach the poor man is
that, as a whole, the wealth in the community is dis-
tinctly beneficial to him ; that he is better off in the
long run because other men are well off; and that
the surest way to destroy what measure of prosper-
ity he may have is to paralyze industry and the well-
being of those men who have achieved success.

I am not an empiricist; I would no more deny
that sometimes human affairs can be much bettered
by l^slation than I would affirm that they can al-

Our Poorer Brother 139

at once put them on an intellectual, social, and busi-
ness equality with the whites. The effort has failed
compl^ely. In large sections of die country the ne-
g^roes are not treated as they should be treated, and
politically in particular the frauds upon theni ha\*e
been so gross and shameful as to awaken not merely
indignation but bitter wrath ; yet the best friends of
the negro admit that his hope lies, not in l^slation,
but in the constant working of those often unseen
forces of the national life which are greater than all
l^slation.

It is but rarely that great advances in general
social well-being can be made by the adoption of
some far-reaching scheme, legislative or otherwise:
normally they come only by gradual growth, and by
incessant effort to do first one thing, then another,
and then another. Quack remedies of the universal
cure-all type are generally as noxious to the body
politic as to the body corporal.

Often the head-in-the-air social reformers, be-
cause people of sane and wholesome minds will not
favor their wild schemes, themselves decline to favor
schemes for practical reform. For the last two years
there has been an honest effort in New York to give
the city good government, and to work intelligently
for better social conditions, especially in the poorest
quarters. We have cleaned the streets; we have
broken the power of the ward boss and the saloon-
keeper to work injustice; we have destroyed the
most hideous of the tenement houses in which poor
people were huddled like swine in a sty; we have

240 Our Poorer Brother

xnaile parks and play-grounds for the children in
Uie crowded quarters ; in every possible way we have
striven to make life easier and healthier, and to
give man and woman a chance to do their best work ;
while at the same time we have warred steadily
agsiiust the pauper-produdng, maudlin philanthropy
of the free-soup kitchen and tramp lodging-house
kind. In all this we have had practically no help
from eitlier the parlor socialists or the scarcely more
noxious beer-room socialists who are always howl-
ing about the selfishness of the rich and their unwill-
ingness to do anything for those less wdl oflF.

There are certain labor unions, certain bodies of
organized labor — notaUy those admirable organiza-
tions which include the railway conductors, die loco-
motive engineers and the firem«i — which to my
mind embody almost the best hope that there is for
healthy national growth in the future; but bitter
experience has taught men who work for reform in
New York that the average labor leader, the average
demagogue who shouts for a depreciated currency,
or for the overthrow of the rich, will not do any-
thing to help those who honestly strive to make
better our civic conditions. There are immense
numbers of workingmen to whom we can appeal
with perfect confidence ; but too often we find that a
large proportion of the men who style themselves
leaders of organized labor are influenced only by
sullen short-sighted hatred of what they do not
understand, and are deaf to all appeals, whether to
their national or to their civic patriotism.

Our Poorer Brother 241

What I most grudge in all this is the fact that
sincere and zealous men of high character and hon-
est purpose, men like Mr. Watson, men and women
such as those he describes as attending his Populist
meetings, or such as are to be found in all strata
of our society, from the en:^)k>yer to the hardest-
worked day laborer, go astray in their methods, and
are thereby prevented from dcnng the full work for
good they ought to. When a man goes on the
wrong road himself he can do very little to guide
others aright, even though these others are also on
the wrong road. There are many wrongs to be
righted; there are many measures of relief to be
pushed ; and it is a jrity that when they are fighting
what is bad and champicming what is good, the men
who ought to be our most eflfective allies should
deprive themselves of useftilness by the wrong-
headedness of their position. Rich men and poor
men both do wrong on occasicms, and whomever a
specific instance of this can be pointed out all citizens
alike should join in punishing the wrong-doer.
Honesty and right-mindedness should be the tests;
not wealth or poverty.

In our municipal administration here in New
York we have acted with an equal hand toward
wrong-doers of high and low degree. The Board of
Health condemns the tenement-house property of
the rich land-owner, whether this land-owner be
priest or layman, banker or railroad president, law-
yer or manager of a real estate business; and it
pays no heed to the intercession of any politician,
II Vol. I.

242 Our Poorer Brother

whether this politician be Catholic or Protestant,
Jew or Gentile. At the same time the Police Depart-
ment promptly suitresses, not only the criminal,
but the rioter. In other words, we do strict justice.
We feel we are defrauded of help to which we are
entitled when men who ought to assist in any work
to better the condition of the people decline to aid
us because their brains are turned by dreams only
worthy of a European revolutionist.

Many workingmen look with distrust upon laws
which really would help them; laws for the intelli-
gent restriction of immigration, for instance. I have
no sympathy with mere dislike for immigrants ; there
are classes and even nationalities of them which
stand at least on an equality with the citizens of
native birth, as the last election showed. But in the
interest of our workingmen we must in the end
keep out laborers who are ignorant, vicious, and with
low standards of life and comfort, just as we have
shut out the Chinese.

Often labor leaders and the like denounce the
present conditions of society, and especially of our
political life, for shortcomings which they them-
selves have been instrumental in causing. In our
cities the misgovemment is due, not to the misdeeds
of the rich, but to the low standard of honesty and
morality among the citizens generally; and nothing
helps the corrupt politician more than substituting
either wealth or poverty for honesty as the standard
by which to try a candidate. A few months ago a
socialistic reformer in New York was denouncing

Our Poorer Brother 243

the cx)rruption caused by rich men because a certain
judge was suspected of giving information in ad-
vance as to a decision in a case involving the in-
terests of a great corporation. Now this judge had
been elected some years previously, mainly because
he was supposed to be a representative of the "poor
man"; and the socialistic reformer himself, a year
ago, was opposing the election of Mr. Beaman as
judge because he was c«ie of the firm of Evarts &
Choate, who were friends of various millionaires
and were counsel for various corporations. But
if Mr. Beaman had been elected judge no human
being, rich or poor, would have dared so much as
hint at his doing anything improper.

Something can be done by good laws; more can
be done by honest administration of the laws; but
most of all can be done by frowning resolutely upon
the preachers of vague discontent; and by iq)holding
the true doctrine of self-reliance, self-help, and self-
mastery. This doctrine sets forth many things.
Among them is the fact that though a man can oc-
casionally be helped when he stumbles, yet that it
is useless to try to carry him when he will not or
can not walk ; and worse than useless to try to bring
down the work and reward of the thrifty and in-
telUgent to the level of the capacity of tiie weak,
the shiftless, and the idle. It further shows that
the maudlin philanthropist and the maudlin senti-
mentalist are almost as noxious as the demagogue,
and that it is even more necessary to temper mercy
with justice than justice with mercy.

f/u- Vo';rr- B"'

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► :-itw,, I fnT»#{- V tft v.na* ar*- caliec the weairriT
.J*.:;.*-. Til* fii#-i. V iti \vtir)n. .' nav*; warkec anc 2£-
*:«»Tit»»; niw=» ' ir*q*-i* flttniif' tJH* i'dV OJuott of vear=
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i: 1' i**i=' ,tt. rit»"n*'"' 'k'.TT*- tr, lictt^ social and cittc
"Mirijiiuti. . ii*-i|t»'-T i;iii)i:inf' v/ri<r i- evil nor being
nil- 1'*: jr lji« ;»|»o^f|«- r»: J, faist; remedy;, and
vill' v"li'»;sf '/iinii'JTi: ii-. t'l v-'iiat i:-. rigbl and pracrica-
tti- 'ivtJ iTi flif mam afrret, art rurt capitalists, save
!•: .ill ni**ii v'li'» |iv loil earn, atid vitb jjrudenct save,
iii'rtirv »Mf 'fijiitfilr-ii' Tlif-^' iticlude reiKjrter'f' on
Mif rl.iih jj;tiifr' r'\\^')*- '»* njarJiziiies. a.- vel: a? of
ii»/v'fs]«»l»f'- ■ ]itnr.!]>;!i' n i\it iiui)iii sc'noois young
li«v'v*/Tf. }'n\ui: ii^rliii'/rif- young" dc»ctor.s. young
m*ti '»! l.niMti'.'Hf v.li':. ;;tf- strngj^lirijc: to rise in their
j»ToIf^.^:»ori br MiTii r)f failbfu] \vc»rk, but who give
hr^in^ of Iherir time tc» doing what the}- can far the
city, and a numl»er of priests and clergjTnen; but
as it hrijjpens the list does not include an}- man of
great wealth, or any of those men whose names are

Our Poorer Brother 245

in the public mind identified witli great business
corporations. Most of them have at one time or
another in their lives faced poverty and know what
it is; none of them is more tiian well-to-do. They
include Catholics and Pn^estants, Jews, and men
who would be r^pirded as heterodox by professors
of most recognized creeds ; some of them were bom
on this side, others are of foreign birth ; but they are
all Americans, heart and soul, who fight out for
themselves the battles of their own lives, meeting
sometimes defeat and sometimes victory. They
neither forg^ that man does owe a duty to his fel-
lows, and should strive to do what he can to in-
crease the well-being of the community; nor yet
do they forget that in the long run the only way
to help people is to make th€m hdp themselves.
They are prepared to try any properly guarded
l^slative remedy for ills which they believe can
be remedied; but they perceive clearly that it i«
both foolish and wicked to teach the average man
who is not well oS that some wrong or injustice
has been done him, and that he should hope for
redress elsewhere than in his own tndttstry, honesty
and intelligence.

IV
THE MONROE DOCTRINE*

THE Monroe Doctrine should not be considered
from any purely academic standpoint, but as
a broad, general principle of living policy. It is
to be justified not by precedent merely, but by the
needs of the nation and the true interests of West-
ern civilization. It, of course, adds strength to our
position at this moment to show that the action of
the national authorities is warranted by the actions
of their predecessors on like occasions in time past,
and that the line of policy we are now pursuing is
that which has been pursued by all our statesmen of
note since the Republic grew sufficiently powerful
to make what it said of weight in foreign affairs.
But even if in time past we had been as blind to the
national honor and welfare as are the men who at
the present day champion the anti-American side of
the Venezuelan question, it would now be necessary
for statesmen who were both far-sighted and patri-
otic to enunciate the principles for which the Monroe
Doctrine stands. In other words, if the Monroe
Doctrine did not already exist it would be necessary
forthwith to create it.

Let us first of all clear the question at issue by

*r/t^ Bachelor of Arts, March, 1896.
(246)

The Monroe Doctrine 247

brushing away one or two false objections. Lord
Salisbury at first put in emphatic words his refusal
in any way to recognize the Monroe Doctrine as part
of the law of nations or as binding upon Great
Britain. Most British statesmen and publicists fol-
lowed his lead; but recently a goodly number have
shown an inclination to acquiesce in the views of
Lord Salisbury's colleague, Mr. Chamberlain, who
announces, with bland indifference to the expressed
opinion of his nominal chief, that England does rec-
ognize the existence of the Monroe Doctrine and
never thought of ignoring it. Lord Salisbury him-
self has recently shown symptoms of changing
ground and taking this position ; while Mr. Balfour
has gone still further in the right direction, and the
Liberal leaders further yet. It is not very important
to us how far Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain
may diverge in their views, although of course, in
the interests of the English-speaking peoples and of
peace between England and the United States, we
trust that Mr. Chamberlain's position will be sus-
tained by Great Britain. But the attitude of our
own people is important, and it would be amusing,
were it not unpleasant, to see that many Americans,
whose Americanism is of the timid and flabby type,
have been inclined eagerly to agree with Lord Salis-
bury. A very able member of the New York bar
remarked the other day that he had not yet met the
lawyer who agreed with Secretary Olney as to the
leg^l interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. This
remark was chiefly interesting as showing the law-

14^ The Monroe Doctrine

yer*s own Kmitations. It would not have been made
if he had met the Justices of the Supreme Gnirt,
for instance ; but even on the mifocmded stqpposxtioa
that his remark was well groonded, it wocdd have
had little more significance dian if he had said that
he had not yet met a dentist who agreed with Mr.
Ohiey. The Monroe Doctrine is not a qnestioa of
law at all. It is a question of poHcy. It is a qnes-
tfon to be considered not only by statesmen, but by
all good citizens. Lawyers, as lawyers, have ab-
soltrtcly nothing whatever to say about it. To argue
that it can not be recognized as a prindple of inter-
national law, is a mere waste of breath. Nobody
cares whether it is or is not so Tecogmzcd, any more
than any one cares whether the Declaration of In-
dependence and Washington's farewell address are
so recognized.

The Monroe Doctrine may be briefly defined as
forHddir^ Europesai encroachmoit on American
soil. It is not desirable to define it so rigidly as
to prevent our taking into account the varjdng de-
grees of national interest in varying cases. The
United States has not the slightest wish to estab-
lish a universal protectorate over other American
States, or to become responsible for their misdeeds.
If one of them becomes involved in an ordinary quar-
rel with a European power, such quarrel must be
settled between them by any one of the usual meth-
ods. But no European State is to be allowed to ag-
grandize itself on American soil at the expense of
any American State. Furthermore, no transfer of

The Monroe Doctrine 249

an American colony from one European State to
another is to be permitted, if, in the judgment of
the United States, such transfer would be hostile to
its own interests.

John Quincy Adams, who, during the Presidency
of Monroe, first clearly enunciated the doctrine
which bears his chiefs name, asserted it as against
both Spain and Russia. In the clearest and most
emphatic terms he stated that the United States
could not acquiesce in the acquisition of new terri-
tory within the limits of any independent Ameri-
can State, whether in the Northern or Southern
Hemisphere, by any European power. He took
this position against Russia when Russia threatened
to take possession of what is now Oregon. He took
this position as against Spain when, backed by
other powers of Continental Europe, she threat-
ened to reconquer certain of the Spanish-American
States.

This is precisely and exactly the position the
United States has now taken in reference to Eng-
land and Venezuela. It is idle to contend that there
is any serious difference in the application of the doc-
trine to the two sets of questions. An American
may, of course, announce his opposition to the Mon-
roe Doctrine, although by so doing he forfeits all
title to far-seeing and patriotic devotion to the in-
terests of his country. But he can not argue that
the Monroe Doctrine does not apply to the present
case, unless he argues that the Monroe Doctrine
has no existence whatsoever. In fact, such argu-

ifo The Monroe Doctrine

menu are, on their face, so absurd that tfaejr need
no refutation, and can be relegated where th^ be-
long — to the reahn of the hair-splittxi^ scfaoohncn.
They have no concern cither for practical polki-
dans or for historians with tme historic iiisi|^

We have asserted the prindpks whidi tsiderlie
the Monroe Doctrine, not only zgsmst Russia and
Spain, but also against France, on at least two dif-
ferent occasions. The last and most important was
when the Frendi conquered l^Iexico and made it
into an ^npire. It is not necessary to recall to any
one the action of our Government in the matter as
soon as the Civil War came to an end Suffice it
to say that, under threat of our interposition, the
Frendi promptly abandoned Maximilian, and the
latter^s Empire fell Long before this, however, and
a score of years before the doctrine was christened
by the name Monroe, even the timid statesmen of
the Jeffersonian era embodied its principle in tiieir
protest against the acquisition of Louisiana by
France, from Spain. Spain at that time held all of
what is now the Great West. France wished to
acquire it. Our statesmen at once announced that
they would regard as hostile to America the trans-
fer of the territory in question from a weak to a
strong European power. Under the American pres-
sure the matter was finally settled by the sale of the
territory in question to the United States. The
principle which our statesmen then announced was
in kind precisely the same as that upon which we
should now act if Germany sought to acquire Cuba

The Monroe Doctrine 251

from Spain, or St. Thomas from the Danes. In
either of these events it is hardly conceivable that
the United States would hesitate to interfere, if nec-
essary, by force of arms; and in so doing the na-
tional authorities would undoubtedly be supported
by the immense majority of the American people,
and, indeed, by all save the men of abnormal timid-
ity or abnormal political short-sightedness.

Historically, therefore, the position of our repre-
sentatives in the Venezuelan question is completely
justified. It can not be attacked on academic grounds.
The propriety of their position is even more easily
defensible.

Primarily, our action is based on national self-
interest. In other words, it is patriotic. A cer-
tain limited number of persons are fond of decrying
patriotism as a selfish virtue, and strive with all their
feeble might to inculcate in its place a kind of milk-
and-water cosmopolitanism. These good people are
never men of robust character or of imposing per-
sonality, and the plea itself is not worth consider-
ing. Some reformers may urge that in the ages'
distant future patriotism, like the habit of monoga-
mous marriage, will become a needless and obso-
lete virtue; but just at present the man who loves
other countries as much as he does his own is quite
as noxious a member of society as the man who
loves other women as much as he loves his wife.
Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of
home, or like honesty or courage. No country will
accomplish very much for the world at large unless

:-;.- The Monroe DoctriiK

i: ek-.-at'fe Itself. The ufieiu! member of a coa^
muiiiiy js tilt mar. who iirs: anc toremos: atcemis to
hi:- o^n. Tjgnti anc his owr cimies. anc who there-
iijTt ijecome?^ betur fitted tt dc his siiare in the
anrnn^jT. duties of aL. Tiie useiiL member of the
brotrHrrtjfxx! of nations is tiiat nation which is most
thoroughiy saturated witb the national idea, and
wiiicf; realizes most fully its ripns as a nation and
iXh duties to its owr chizcns. Tnis is in no way
incomjjatibie with a scrupulous regard for the rights
of other nations, or a desire to remed}* the wrongs
of suffering' jieopies.

Trie L-rnier: State?; ought not tc- permh any great
niilitarj' powers, which have no foothold on this
continent, to establish such foothold; nor should
tlie>' permit any aggrandizement of those who al-
ready have possessions on the continent. We do
not wish Uj ]rr'mg ourselves to a position where we
shall have to emulate the European system of enor-
mous armies. Every true patriot, ever)' man of
«tate»man-like habit, should look forward to the
day wl^ien not a single European power will hold a
fo^rt of American soil. At present it is not neces-
r/tity to take the ]K>sitiori that no European power
»hall hold American territory: but it certainly will
Uc^mukc necessary, if the timid and selfish "peace at
any ];ricc'* men have their way, and if the United
States; fails to check at the outset European ag-
Kraiidizenietil oii this continent.

Primarily, tliereffjre, it is to the interest of the
citizerjf. of the United States to prevent the further

The Monroe Doctrine 253

colonial growth of European powers in the Western
Hemisjiiere. But this is also to the interest of all
the people of the Western Hemisphere. At best, the
inhabitants of a colony are in a cramped and un-
natural state. At the worst, the establishment of a
colony prevents any healthy popular growth. Some
time in the dim future it may be that all the En-
glish-speaking peoples will be able to unite in some
kind of confederacy. However desirable this would
be, it is, under existing conditions, only a dream.
At present the only hope for a colony that wishes to
attain full moral and mental growth is to become
an independent State, or part of an independent
State. No English colony now stands on a footing
of genuine equality with the parent State. As long
as the Canadian remains a colonist, he remains in
a position which is distinctly inferior to that of his
cousins, both in England and in the United States.
The Englishman at bottom looks down on the Ca-
nadian as he does on any one who admits his in-
feriority, and quite properly, too. The American,
on the other hand, with equal propriety, r^^rds the
Canadian with the good-natured condescension al-
ways felt by the freeman for the man who is not
free. A funny instance of the English attitude to-
ward Canada was shown after Lord Dunravcn's in-
glorious fiasco last September, when the Canadian
yachtsman. Rose, challenged for the America's cup.
The English journals repudiated him on the express
ground that a Canadian was not an Englishman and
not entitled to the privileges of an Englishman. In

254 The Monroe Doctrine

their comments, many of them showed a dislike
for Americans which almost rose to hatred. The
feeling they displayed for the Canadians was not one
of dislike. It was one of contempt.

Under the best of circimistances, therefore, a col-
ony is in a false position. But if the colony is in a
region where the colonizing race has to do its work
by means of other inferior races the condition is
much worse. From the standpoint of the race little
or nothing has been gained by the English conquest
and colonization of Jamaica. It has merely been
turned into a negro island, with a future, seemingly,
much like that of San Domingo. British Guiana,
however well administered, is nothing but a colony
where a few hundred or few thousand white men
hold the superior positions, while the bulk of the
population is composed of Indians, Negroes, and
Asiatics. Looked at through the vista of the centu-
ries, such a colony contains less promise of true
growth than does a State like Venezuela or Ecua-
dor. The history of most of the South American
republics has been both mean and bloody; but there
is at least a chance that they may develop, after
infinite tribulations and suffering, into a civiliza-
tion quite as high and stable as that of such a Eu-
ropean power as Portugal. But there is no such
chance for any tropical American colony owned by
a Northern European race. It is distinctly in the
interest of civilization that the present States in
the two Americas should develop along their own
lines, and however desirable it is that many of them

The Monroe Doctrine 2ss

should receive European immigration, it is highly
undesirable that any of them should be imder Eu-
ropean controL

So much for the general principles, and the justi-
fication, historically and morally, of the Monroe
Doctrine. Now take the specific case at issue. Great
Britain has a boundary dispute with Venezuela.
She claims as her own a territory which Venezuela
asserts to be hers, a territory which in point of size
very nearly equals the Kingdom of Italy. Our Gov-
ernment, of course, can not, if it wishes to remain
true to the traditions of the Monroe Doctrine, submit
to the acquisition by England of such an enormous
tract of territory, and it must therefore find out
whether the English claims are or are not well
founded. It would, of course, be preposterous to
lay down the rule that no European power should
seize American territory which was not its own, and
yet to permit the power itself to decide the question
of the ownership of such territory. Great Britain
refused to settle the question either by amicable
agreement with Venezuela or by arbitration. All
that remained for the United States, was to do what
it actually did ; that is, to try and find out the facts
for itself, by its own commission. If the facts show
England to be in the right, well and good. If they
show England to be in the wrong, we most certainly
ought not to permit her to profit, at Venezuela's ex-
pense, by her own wrong-doing.

We are doing exactly what England would very
properly do in a like case. Recently, when the

256 The Monroe Doctrine

German Emperor started to interfere in the Trans-
vaal, England promptly declared her own "Monroe
Doctrine" for South Africa. We do not propose
to see English filibusters try at the expense of Vene-
zuela the same policy which recently came to such
an ignominious end in the Transvaal, in a piece of
weak, would-be buccaneering, which, it is perhaps
not unfair to say, was fittingly commemorated in the
verse of the new poet-laureate.

It would be difficult to'overestimate the good done
in this country by the vigorous course already taken
by the national Executive and Legislature in this
matter. The lesson taught Lord Salisbury is one
which will not soon be forgotten by English states-
men. His position is false, and is recognized as
false by the best English statesmen and publicists.
If he does not consent to arrange the matter with
Venezuela, it will have to be arranged in some way
by arbitration. In either case, the United States
gains its point. The only possible danger of war
comes from the action of the selfish and timid men
on this side of the water, who clamorously strive
to misrepresent American, and to mislead English,
public opinion. If they succeed in persuading
Lord Salisbury that the American people will
back down if he presses them, they will do the
greatest damage possible to both countries, for
they will render war, at some time in the future,
almost inevitable.

Such a war we would deplore; but it must be
distinctly understood that we would deplore it very

The Monroe Doctrine 2/J7

much more for England's sake than for our own;
for whatever might be the initial fortunes of the
struggle, or the temporary damage and loss to the
United States, the mere fact that Canada would in-
evitably be rent from England in the end would
make the outcome an English disaster.

We do not in any way seek to become the sponsor
of the South American States. England has the
same right to protect her own subjects, or even in
exceptional cases to interfere to stop outrages in
South America, that we have to interfere in Ar-
menia — and it is to be r^retted that our represen-
tatives do not see their way clear to interfere for
Armenia. But England should not acquire terri-
tory at the expense of Venezuela any more than we
should acquire it at the expense of Turkey.

The mention of Armenia brings up a peculiarly
hjrpocritical plea which has been advanced against
us in this controversy. It has been solemnly alleged
that our action in Venezuela has hampered England
in the East and has prevented her interfering on be-
half of Armenia. We do not wish to indulge in
recriminations, but when such a plea is advanced,
the truth, however unpleasant, must be told. The
great crime of this century against civilization has
been the upholding of the Turk by certain Christian
powers. To England's attitude in the Crimean War,
and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, the pres-
ent Armenian horror is primarily due. Moreover,
for SIX months before the Venezuelan question arose
England" had looked on motionless while the Turks

ir^ The \frmroc Doctrme

^^r ^irrr^rerf -^n thcr wretched iafajecta wrongs that
-rv-.y. ysfcit the rrjcnorr of Ardla.

^Ve ^ not Trish n^ be miaunrfcricood. We bs^^
ruv reeiiri^ a^irjit Er4ffarui On rfic contrary, we
re^pM her a.i beir^f TreH tn ^tdnruot of tfie great
p/.-rcr^ of Conttnencal Eorope. and we have more
^}rmpath7 with her. In ^sesitratL her soccess tells
for fhe ^access of cmlizatron. and we wish her wdL
Btrt where her intere^« cnlfst her ag^nst the prog-
re^"^ of civilization and m favor of the opprcssioa
''>f other nationalities who arc straggling npwari
orir sympathies are immediately forfeited.

It is a matter of serioos concern to every college
man, and, indeerl, to every man who believes in rfie
^^/7<1 effects of a liberal education, to see the false
vir/zs which seem to obtain among so many of the
le;»ders of e^Jucate^l thought, not only upon the Moo-
f ^;e f >x:trinc, t/ut up^>n e^ery question which involves
tlic existence of a feeh'ng of robust Americanism.
Kvcry educaterl man who puts himself out of touch
witli the current of American thought, and who on
r//tJspirtiotis rxxasions assumes an attitude hostile to
tlif! interest (ff America, is doing what he can to
v/tuUn) tJie influence of educated men in American
lifr, 'Die crude, ill-conditioned jealousy of educa-
fioti, wliirli IS so often and so lamentably shown by
I'lr^c horlies (ff our fier^ple, is immensely stimulated
by fill* ;irtion of those prominent educated men in
wliMin edtir;ilir>ii seems to have destroyed the strong,
V if ill* virtues and especially the spirit of American-
istn.

The Monroe Doctrine 259

No nation can achieve real greatness if its people
are not both essentially moral and essentially manly ;
both sets of qualities are necessary. It is an admi-
rable thing to possess refinement and cultivation, but
the price is too dear if they must be paid for at the
cost of the rugged fighting qualities which make
a man able to do a man's work in the world, and
which make his heart beat with that kind of love of
country which is shown not only in readiness to try
to make her civic life better, but also to stand up
manfully for her when her honor and influence are
at stake in a dispute with a foreign power. A heavy
responsibility rests on the educated man. It is a
double discredit to him to go wrong, whether his
shortcomings take the form of shirking his every-
day civic duties, or of abandonment of the nation's
rights in a foreign quarrel. He must no more be
misled by the sneers of those who always write "pa-
triotism" between inverted commas than by the
coarser, but equally dangerous, ridicule of the poli-
ticians who jeer at "reform." It is as unmanly to
be taunted by one set of critics into cowardice as it
is to be taunted by the other set into dishonesty.

There are many upright and honorable men'who
take the wrong side, that is, the anti-American side,
of the Monroe Doctrine because they are too short-
sighted or too unimaginative to realize the hurt to
the nation that would be caused by the adoption of
their views. There are other men who take the
wrong view simply because they have not thought
much of the matter, or are in unfortunate surround-

26o The Monroe Doctrine

ings, by which they have been influenced to their
own moral hurt. There are yet other men in whom
the mainspring of the opposition to that branch of
American policy known as the Monroe Doctrine is
sheer timidity. This is sometimes the ordinary
timidity of wealth. Sometimes, however, it is pe-
culiarly developed among educated men whose edu-
cation has tended to make them over-cultivated and
over-sensitive to foreign opinion. They are gener-
ally men who imdervalue the great fighting qualities,
without which no nation can ever rise to the first
rank.

The timidity of wealth is proverbial, and it was
well illustrated by the attitude taken by too many
people of means at the time of the Venezuela trouble.
Many of them, including bankers, merchants, and
railway magnates, criticised the action of the Presi-
dent and the Senate, on the ground that it had caused
business disturbance. Such a position is essentially
ignoble. When a question of national honor or of
national right or wrong is at stake, no question of
financial interest should be considered for a mo-
ment. Those wealthy men who wish the abandon-
ment of the Monroe Doctrine because its assertion
may damage their business, bring discredit to them-
selves, and, so far as they are able, discredit to the
nation of which they are a part.

It is an evil thing for any man of education to
forget that education should intensify patriotism,
and that patriotism must not only be shown by striv-
ing to do good to the country from within, but by

The Monroe Doctrine 261

readiness to uphold its interests and honor, at any
cost, when menaced from without. Educated men
owe to the community the serious performance of
this duty. We need not concern ourselves with the
emigre educated man, the American who deliber-
ately takes up his permanent abode abroad, whether
in London or Paris; he is usually a man of weak
character, unfitted to do good work either abroad or
at home, who does what he can for his country by
relieving it of his presence. But the case is other-
wise with the American who stays at home, and tries
to teach the youth of his country to disbelieve in the
country's rights, as against other countries, and to
regard it as the sign of an enlightened spirit to de-
cry the assertion of those rights by force of arms.
This man may be inefficient for good ; but he is ca-
pable at times of doing harm, because he tends to
make other people inefficient likewise. In our mu-
nicipal politics there has long been evident a tendency
to gather in one group the people who have no
scruples, but who are very efficient, and in another
group the amiable people who are not efficient at all.
This is but one manifestation of the general and very
unwholesome tendency among certain educated peo-
ple to lose the power of doing efficient work as they
acquire refinement. Of course in the long run a
really good education will give not only refinement,
but also an increase of power, and of. capacity for
efficient work. But the man who forgets that a real
education must include the cultivation of the fight-
ing virtues is sure to manifest this tendency to ineffi-

262 The Monroe Doctrine

ciency. It is exhibited oo a naticmal scale by the
educated men who take the anti-American side of
international qtiestions. There are exceptions to
the mle; but as a rule the heahhy man, resohite to
do the rough work of the worlds and capable of fe^
bag his veins tingle with pride over the great deeds
of the men of his own nation, will naturally take
the American side of such a questicm as the Monroe
Doctrine. Similarly, the anaemic man of refine-
ment and cultiv-ation, whose intellect has been edu-
cated at the expense of his character, and who
shrinks from all these strt^gles through which ak»ie
the world moves on to greatness, is inclined to coo-
skier any expression of the Monroe Doctrine as truc-
ulait and ill adrised.

Of cotn'se^ many strong men wiio are good citizens
on ordinary occasions take the latter view simply
because they have been misled. The colcmial habit
of thought dies hard. It is to be wished that those
who are cursed with it would, in endeavoring to
emulate the wa\-s of the Old World, endeavor to emu-
late one characteristic which has been shared by
every Old-World nation* and which is possessed
to a markeil degree by England. Every decent
Englishman is de^x>ted to his country, first, last, and
all the tiuK?. An Englishman may or may not dis-
like America, but he is invariably for England and
against America when any question arises between
them : and I heartily respect him for so being. Let
our own people of the partially colonial type copy
this peculiarity and it will be much to their credit

The Monroe Doctrine 263

The finest speech that for many years has been
deHvered by a college man to other college men was
that made last spring by Judge Holmes, himself a
gallant soldier of the Civil War, in that hall which
Harvard has erected to commemorate those of her
sons who perished when the North strove with the
South. It should be graven on the heart of every
college man, for it has in it that lift of the soul to-
ward things heroic that makes the eyes burn and
the veins thrill. It must be read in its entirety, for
no quotation could do justice to its fine scorn of the
mere money-maker, its lofty fealty to a noble ideal,
and, above all, its splendid love of country and splen-
did praise of the valor of those who strive on stricken
fields that the honor of their nation may be upheld.

It is strange, indeed, that in a country where
words like those of Judge Holmes can be spoken,
there should exist men who actually oppose the
building of a navy by the United States, nay, even
more, actually oppose so much as the strengthening
of the coast defences, on the ground that they prefer
to have this country too feeble to resent any insult,
in order that it may owe its safety to the contemptu-
ous forbearance which it is hoped this feebleness will
inspire in foreign powers. No Tammany alderman,
no venal legislator, no demagogue or corrupt poli-
tician, ever strove more effectively than these men
are striving to degrade the nation and to make one
ashamed of the name of America. When we re-
member that among them there are college gradu-
ates, it is a relief to remember that the leaders on

1^4 The Mooroc Doctrine

the side of rnanlirifsg and of lo^ of coootrj, are
also coQcge gradoatcs. E^ery behever in scholarsfa^
and in a fibcral cdocadoo, every fadiever in the robast
qoafities of heart, miiid^ and bodj widioat which
cuhiration and refinement are of no aTail, most re-
joice to think that, in the present cristSi, college men
have been prominent among the leaders whose £ar-
s%fated statesmanship and rcsokite love of o muU r y
have made diose of as who are really Americans
prood of the nation. Secretary Obey is a graduate
of Brown ; Senator Lodge, who took the lead in the
Senate on this matter, is a graduate of Harvard;
and no less than three members of the Boundary
Commission are graduates of Yale.

WASHINGTON'S FORGOTTEN MAXIM*

A CENTURY has passed since Washington wrote
"To be prepared for war is the most effectual
means to promote peace." We pay to this maxim
the lip loyalty we so often pay to Washington's
words; but it has never sunk deep into our hearts.
Indeed of late years many persons have refused it
even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about
the iniquity of war as if somehow that was a justi-
fication for refusing to take the steps which can
alone in the long run prevent war or avert the dread-
ful disasters it brings in its train. The truth of the
maxim is so obvious to every man of really far-
sighted patriotism that its mere statement seems trite
and useless, and it is not over-creditable to either
our intelligence or our love of country that there
should be, as there is, need to dwell upon and am-
plify such a truism.

In this country there is not the slightest danger
of an over-development of warlike spirit, and there
never has been any such danger. In all our his-
tory there has never been a time when preparedness
for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary,

♦Address as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, before the

Naval War College, June, 1897.

12 {^)

Vol. L

266 A Forgotten Maxim

again and again we have owed peace to the fact that
we were prepared for war; and in the only contest
which we have had with a European power since
the Revolution, the War of 1812, the struggle and all
its attendant disasters were due solely to the fact
that we were not prepared to face, and were not
ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor
and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea
which redeemed that war were due to the few prep-
arations which we had actually made. We are a
great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and
manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics; a nation
of workingmen, who labor incessantly with head or
hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being
led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict
with military powers by the possession of a suffi-
cient navy.

The danger is of precisely the opposite character.
If we forget that in the last resort we can only se-
cure peace by being ready and willing to fight for
it, we may some day have bitter cause to realize that
a rich nation which is slothful, timid, or unwieldy is
an easy prey for any people which still retains those
most valuable of alt qualities, the soldierly virtues.
We but keep to the traditions of Washington, to the
traditions of all the great Americans who struggled
for the real greatness of America, when we strive
to build up those fighting qualities for the lack of
which in a nation, as in an individual, no refinement,
no culture, no wealth, no material prosperity, can
atone.

A Forgotten Maxim 267

Preparation for war is the surest guaranty for
peace. Arbitration is an excellent thing, but ulti-
mately those who wish to see this country at peace
with foreign nations will be wise if they place re-
liance upon a first-class fleet of first-class battleships
rather than on any arbitration treaty which the wit
of man can devise. Nelson said that the British fleet
was the best negotiator in Europe, and there was
much truth in the saying. Moreover, while we are
sincere and earnest in our advocacy of peace, we
must not forget that an ignoble peace is worse than
any war. We should engrave in our legislative halls
those splendid lines of Lowell :

"Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed
For honor lost and dear ones wasted,
But proud, to meet a people proud,
With eyes that tell of triumph tasted!"

Peace is a goddess only when she comes with
sword girt on thigh. The ship of state can be
steered safely only when it is always possible to
bring her against any foe with "her leashed thun-
ders gathering for the leap." A really great people,
proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters
of war rather than purchase that base prosperity
which is bought at the price of national honor. All
the great masterful races have been fighting races,
and the minute that a race loses the hard fighting
virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no
matter how skilled in commerce and finance, in
science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand
as the equal of the best. Cowardice in a race, as in

268 A Forgotten Maxim

an individual, is the unpardonable sin, and a wilful
failure to* prepare for danger may in its effects be
as bad as cowardice. The timid man who can not
fight, and the selfish, short-sighted, or foolish man
who will not take the steps that will enable him to
fight, stand on almost the same plane.

It is not only true that a peace may be so ignoble
and degrading as to be worse than any war; it is
also true that it may be fraught with more blood-
shed than most wars. Of this there has been melan-
choly proof during the last two years. Thanks
largely to the very unhealthy influence of the men
whose business it is to speculate in the money
market, and who approach every subject from the
financial standpoint, purely; and thanks quite as
much to the cold-blooded brutality and calculating
timidity of many European rulers and statesmen, the
peace of Europe has been preserved, while the Turk
has been allowed to butcher the Armenians with
hideous and unmentionable barbarity, and has actu-
ally been helped to keep Crete in slavery. War has
been averted at the cost of more bloodshed and in-
finitely more suffering and degradation to wretched
women and children than have occurred in any
European struggle since the days of Waterloo. No
war of recent years, no matter how wanton, has
been so productive of horrible misery as the peace
which the powers have maintained during the con-
tinuance of the Armenian butcheries. The men who
would preach this peace, and indeed the men who
have preached universal peace in terms that have

A Forgotten Maxim 269

prepared the way for such peace as this, have in-
flicted a wrong on humanity greater than could be
inflicted by the most reckless and war-loving despot.
Better a thousand times err on the side of over-
readiness to fight, than to err on the side of tame
submission to injury, or cold-blooded indifference
to the misery of the oppressed.

Popular sentiment is just when it selects as popu-
lar heroes the men who have led in the struggle
against malice domestic or foreign levy. No tri-
umph of peace is quite so great as the supreme
triumphs of war. The courage of the soldier, the
courage of the statesman who has to meet storms
which can be quelled only by soldierly qualities —
this stands higher than any quality called out
merely in time of peace. It is by no means neces-
sary that we should have war to develop soldier-
ly attributes and soldierly qualities; but if the
peace we enjoy is of such a kind that it causes
their loss, then it is far too dearly purchased, no
matter what may be its attendant benefits. It
may be that some time in the dim future of the race
the need for war will vanish; but that time is yet
ages distant. As yet no nation can hold its place in
the world, or can do any work really worth doing,
unless it stands ready to guard its rights with an
armed hand. That orderly liberty which is both
the foundation and the capstone of our civilization
can be gained and kept only by men who are willing
to fight for an ideal; who hold high the love of
honor, love of faith, love of flag, and love of coun-

*.rv ;* in true tii2t no xbdoc cas: fie rcsJHr

utjT^K&ij. Sirirird rnr^alifoce rr cnc ciii:A ; > fe and
iTid!i«3tnaJ «sierpri!>cs a'-kr : rae ^ima' sciiirj dc de
^n;:>t, the man oi iettzrs. t^ nasi of snrTrrT aad 13k

Lio rraxL, :;i2jd to Stand for rig'li i rAiarrsg — sX liicse
ir«: rMeceftjary m a grot satioc Srr ir is ilac- taecc?-

^r^ tjxit the natioc ahcnlc hsTc pcjsrzl no jss
ti'-Ar: rr/-^ cr>uTa;?t: :i« capacrj i:/ do aad dait
ir^'i 'i:*: it !j«?l iii-d that grnii 2r>i steadfast resoSn-
ti'/r. «rhi''X a>>c^ w:*l carrj 2. eresi pcOTwe TtroGgii
<i jf r*skt periL The occasion iraj (rxnc 21 airr ^tMiJiii
wbtn

VpTdio: ioT vat trah ise oragir ta «5e.'

A!i great rjatioas have shc/wn these qTiartics,
7>j<: Dutch heW Ixit a littk corner of Earopc. Thor
iiylu*>try, thrift, a»i enterprise in the pmsuiis of
peace aii4 their ctihivation of the arts bdped to
render them ^eat: btrt these qtiaKties wodd hare
f/een iAvren ha4 the.- not been backed by those
Mftrntr rjuah'ties which rendered them able to wrest
their freedom from the cruel strength of Spain, and
Uf ^ftian! it against the banded might of England and
of I 'ranee. The merchants and the artists of Hol-
land did much for her; but e\'en more was done by
the famished fnirghers who fought to the deadi on
the walls of Haarlem and Leyden, and the great
admirals who led their fleets to victory on the broad
and narrow seas.

A Forgotten Maxim 271

England's history is rich in splendid names and
splendid deeds. Her literature is even greater than
that of Greece. In commerce she has stood in the
modern world as more than ever Carthage was when
civilization clustered in a fringe around the Medi-
terranean. But she has risen far higher than ever
Greece or Carthage rose, because she possesses also
the great, masterful qualities which were possessed
by the Romans who overthrew them both. Eng-
land has been fertile in soldiers and administrators ;
in men who triumphed by sea and by land; in ad-
venturers and explorers who won for her the world's
waste spaces ; and it is because of this that the En-
glish-speaking race now shares with the Slav the
fate of the coming years.

We of the United States have passed most of our
few years of national life in peace. We honor the
architects of our wonderful material prosperity ; we
appreciate the necessity of thrift, energy, and busi-
ness enterprise, and we know that even these are of
no avail without the civic and social virtues. But we
feel, after all, that the men who have dared greatly
in war, or the work which is akin to war, are those
who deserve best of the country. The men of
Bunker Hill and Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown,
the men of New Orleans and Mobile Bay, Gettys-
burg and Appomattox are those to whom we owe
most. None of our heroes of peace, save a few
great constructive statesmen, can rank with our he-
roes of wan The Americans who stand highest on
the list of the world's worthies are Washington, who

1*1 A ForsQCBcs MziixB

5;.iqpst ac 5:firni die ciantrT wakk he a£Derwani
gcs^rxd. ami rrnrran, wiio s&ved rt throi^fL die
mxd ci :ae best and bravest in die land: Wash-
^ngtrr die ioidier and scacesnaru the man of coot
hokL 'arxTiryr hrart, ami iron wilL tiae greatest
DC g^:*:^ nam and cne best of grext bkh: and Lin-
ooin, sad, patiggt. kamfiy Tirwiln. wito for tour jcars
toued and siiife e d n:-r :ise peopie* and when bis w*jtk
was &r.e laid down ifs zfe diat me rf.'ig- wfeich had
been recc in sender inight occe more he niade whofc
assd wTthcct i sean^

it is ya TDCCL szxh as tbese. and not on the adrcK
cattts of peace at any prxe. cr 1:551x1 those so sfaort-
sig!:;ted dsat they refose to take inta accoont the
possihiKty of war. Aat we most rely rn every crisis
whkfa ^kepiy tooches tte troe greatness and trae
bcrsor of the Repabuc The United States has iic¥er
ODce in the oocrse of its history stmcred harm be-
cause of pnqmation for war. or bccatise of enterii^
into war. But we haTe suffered incakabbk harm,
again and again, from a foclish faihire to prepare for
war or from rdtictance to %fat when to fight was
proper. The men who to-day protest against a navy,
and protest also against every movement to carry out
the traditional policy of the country in foreign af-
fairs, and to uphold the lioiK>r of the dag. are them-
selves but following in the course of those who pro-
tested against the acquisition of the great West,
and who failed to make proper preparations for the
War of 1812, or refused to support it after it had
been made. They are owti brothers to the men

A Forgotten Maxim 273

whose short-sightedness and supine indifference pre-
vented any reorganization of the personnel of the
Navy during the middle of the century, so that we
entered upon the Civil War with captains seventy
years old. They are close kin to the men who, when
the Southern States seceded, wished to let the Union
be disrupted in peace rather than restored through
the grim agony of armed conflict.

I do not believe that any considerable number of
our citizens are stamped with this timid lack of
patriotism. There are some doctrinaires whose eyes
are so firmly fixed on the golden vision of universal
peace that they can not see the grim facts of real
life until they stumble over them, to their own
hurt, and, what is much worse, to the possible un-
doing of their fellows. There are some educated
men in whom education merely serves to soften the
fibre and to eliminate the higher, sterner qualities
which tell for national greatness; and these men
prate about love for mankind, or for another coun-
try, as being in some hidden way a substitute for love
of their own country. What is of more weight, there
are not a few men of means who have made the
till their fatherland, and who are always ready to
balance a temporary interruption of money-making,
or a temporary financial and commercial disaster,
against the self-sacrifice necessary in upholding the
honor of the nation and the glory of the flag.

But after all these people, though often noisy,
form but a small minority of the whole. They would
be swept like chaff before the gust of popular fury

274 A Forgotten Maxim

which would surely come if ever the nation really
saw and felt a danger or an insult. The real trouble
is that in such a case this gust of popular fury would
come too late. Unreadiness for war is merely ren-
dered more disastrous by readiness to bluster; to
talk defiance and advocate a vigorous policy in
words, while refusing to back up these words by
deeds, is cause for humiliation. It has always been
true, and in this age it is more than ever true, that
it is too late to prepare for war when the time for
peace has passed. The short-sightedness of many
people, the good-humored indifference to facts of
others, the sheer ignorance of a vast number, and
the selfish reluctance to insure against future danger
by present sacrifice among yet others — ^these are the
chief obstacles to building up a proper navy and
carrying out a proper foreign policy.

The men who opposed the War of 1812, and
preferred to have the nation humiliated by unre-
sented insult from a foreign power rather than see
her suffer the losses of an honorable conflict, occu-
pied a position little short of contemptible; but it
was not much worse than that of the men who
brought on the war and yet deliberately refused to
make the preparations necessary to carry it to a suc-
cessful conclusion. The visionary schemes for de-
fending the country by gunboats, instead of by a fleet
of seagoing battleships; the refusal to increase the
Navy to a proper size; the determination to place
reliance upon militia instead of upon r^ularly
trained troops; and the disasters which followed

A Forgotten Maxim 275

upon each and every one of these determinations
should be studied in every schoolbook in the land so
as to enforce in the minds of all our citizens the
truth of Washington's adage, that in time of peace
it is necessary to prepare for war.

All this applied in 181 2; but it applies with ten-
fold gpreater force now. Then, as now, it was the
Navy upon which the country had to depend in the
event of war with a foreign power; and then, as
now, one of the chief tasks of a wise and far-seeing
statesmanship should have been the upbuilding of a
formidable fighting navy. In 18 12 untold evils fol-
lowed from the failure to provide such a fighting
navy; for the splendid feats of our few cruisers
merely showed what could have been done if we
had had a great fleet of battleships. But ships, g^ns,
and men were much more easily provided in time
of emergency at the beginning of this century than
at the end. It takes months to build guns and ships
now, where it then took days, or at the most, weeks ;
and it takes far longer now to train men to the man-
agement of the vast and complicated engines with
which war is waged. Therefore preparation is mucli
more difficult, and requires a much longer time ; and
yet wars are so much quicker, they last so compara-
tively short a period, and can be begun so instantane-
ously that there is very much less time than for-
merly in which to make preparations.

No battleship can be built inside of two years
under no matter what stress of circumstances, for
we have not in this country the plant to enable us to

i':h A ForgpttBxi yiaainr

work faster, (^misers \vouid take almost 35 lon^.
E/«i rorpcrin boats, the «nailest ot alL coirid nnt be
put in lirat-dass form tinder ninety days. Gans
available fo» use against a hostile invader would re^
quire r.vo or -Jirec months: and in the case of the
larger ^ins. die only ones really available fior tie
actuai ^^hock of battle could not be nsade rmder eight
mr-inths. Rides and miiitary muniticns of every
kind wouid require a corresponding- length of time
tor preparation: in most cases we shotild have to
hill id, not merely the weapons we need, but the plant
with which to make them hi any larigfe quantity.
Even if the enemy did not interfere with our eflEorts,
which they Tmdoubtedly would, it would, theretbre;
take from three to six mondis after the ombtea k of
a war, for which we were onpreparci before we
c^>«ld in the slightest degree remedy our unreadiness.
Inuring this six months it would be impossftie to
overe^^timate the (hxnsLgt that could be done by a
f ev>lutc and powerful antagonist. Even at the end
of that time we would only be beginning to prepare
to pHtry hiA attack, for it would be two years before
we cotild attempt to return it. Since the change in
military conrlitir>ns in modem times there has never
iiten an inj^tance in which a war between any two
nati^ms ha» lasted more than about two years. In
tno<it recent wars the operations of the first ninety
dayft have decided the result of the conflict All that
follf>wed lia» licen a mere vain effort to strive against
the fltarft in their courses by doing at the twelfth hour
what it was ttfteless to do after the eleventh.

^ A Forgotten Maxim 277

We must therefore make up our minds once for
all to the fact that it is too late to make ready for
war when the fight has once begun. The prepara-
tion must come before that In the case of the Civil
War none of these conditions applied. In 1861 we
had a good fleet, and the Southern Confederacy
had not a ship. We were able to blockade the
Southern ports at once, and we could improvise en-
gines of war more than sufficient to put against those
of an enemy who also had to improvise them, and
who labored imder even more serious disadvantages.
The Monitor was got ready in the nidc of time to
meet the Merrimac, because the Confederates had to
plan and build the latter while we were planning and
building the former; but if ever we have to go to
war with a modern military power we shall find its
Merrimacs already built, and it will then be alto-
gether too late to try to build Monitors to meet them.

If this point needs any emphasis surely the history
of the War of 1812 applies to it. For twelve years
before that war broke out even the blindest could
see that we were almost certain to be drawn into
hostilities with one or the other of the pair of com-
batants whose battle-royal ended at Waterloo. Yet
we made not the slightest preparation for war. The
authorities at Washington contented themselves with
trying to build a flotilla of gunboats which could
defend our own harbors without making it necessary
to take the offensive ourselves. We already pos-
sessed a dozen first-class cruisers, but not a battle-
ship of any kind. With almost incredible folly the

,^. r -r.j^-*;-.-. -.'iii* 'j*:'S:tLr*:t xtr " .nsi ai*vr: tic iET

^vr^.< -I'r ':€">: ":i«r. Irr'h zzti zm im- ^rsr-cisss ar-

r*.*i''/r; ;/aT fc^r rii -wicnt of fire^j j gi:: 2nd fcrfSiDoerji.
OvT rT!;:^:^ iror. a rr^nber c-f gtrVr^g -ricrnriesi,
^A^V'Jrrr.vj^^ sn*! r^vir^f h'.^t t:- th* nir-ir: ir: rbe fare
'/f ^^-^U-W^ : Vr: trj*r-- -vv*rt >':'-wverjef= tj 6:- rsierisLl
J-i^srr'. *-o *rjf: ;r:j^<ir?*/>: n<tvi: strength of Grc^t Brhar:-
yM*/r\x v,-*rr*r maot to frjcrea?* our IfttJe Xaxy. bm
in tfi*: )V;e of a h^jh^ut enerry alrcacj possessing-
'y^rimand of tht seas this -w*Sl5 impossibje. Two or
thre*: «tma]l cmi»»ers were built: but practicallv al-
iTKAt a]] the fi^rfiting' on the ocean \^-as done by the
Jjan^Jfu] of frijfates and sloops which we possessed
wh^j the v.ar broke out. Xot a battleship was able
i/f j/ut tr^ sea until after peace was restored. Mean-
while fmr coast was blockaded from one end to the
Mher and was harried at will by the hostile squad-
rfms. Our capital city was burned, and the cease-
hs^ pressure of the blockade produced such suflFer-
un( and irritation as nearly to bring about a ci\nl
war amonjf ourselves. If in the first decade of the
present century the American people and their rulers
had jK^ssesscd the wisdom to provide an efficient fleet
of iK>werfuI battleships there would probably have
]H*i*u no War of 1812 ; and even if war had come, the
initnensc lr)ss to, and destruction of, trade and com-
merce by the blockade would have been prevented.

A Forgotten Maxim 279

Merely from the monetary standpoint the saving
would have been incalculable; and yet this would
have been the smallest part of the gain.

It can therefore be taken for granted that there
must be adequate preparation for conflict, if conflict
is not to mean disaster. Furthermore, this prepara-
tion must take the shape of an efficient fighting navy.
We have no foe able to conquer or overrun our ter-
ritory. Our small army should always be kept in
first-class condition, and every attention should be
paid to the National Guard ; but neither on the North
nor the South have we neighbors capable of menac-
ing us with invasion or long resisting a serious effort
on our part to invade them. The enemies we may
have to face will come from over the sea ; they may
come from Europe, or they may come from Asia.
Events move fast in the West; but this generation
has been forced to see that they move even faster in
the oldest East. Our interests are as great in the
Pacific as in the Atlantic, in the Hawaiian Islands
as in the West Indies. Merely for the protection
of our own shores we need a great navy; and what
is more, we need it to protect our interests in the
islands from which it is possible to command our
shores and to protect our commerce on the high seas.

In building this navy, we must remember two
things : First, that our ships and guns should be the
very best of their kind; and second, that no matter
how good they are, they will be useless unless the
man in the conning-tower and the man behind the
gun are also the best of their kind. It is mere folly

28o A Forgotten Maxim

to send men to perish because they have arms with
which they can not win. With poor ships, were an
Admiral Nelson and Farragut rolled in one, he might
be beaten by any first-class fleet ; and he surely would
be beaten if his opponents were in any d^jee his
equals in skill and courage; but without this skill
and courage no perfection of material can avail, and
with them very grave shortcomings in equipment
may be overcome. The men who command our
ships must have as perfect weapons ready to their
hands as can be found in the civilized world, and
they must be trained to the highest point in using
them. They must have skill in handling the ships,
skill in tactics, skill in strategy, for ignorant courage
can not avail ; but without courage neither will skill
avail. They must have in them the dogged ability
to bear punishment, the power and desire to inflict
it, the daring, the resolution, the willingness to take
risks and incur responsibility which have been pos-
sessed by the great captains of all ages, and without
which no man can ever hope to stand in the front
rank of fighting men.

Tame submission to foreign aggression of any
kind is a mean and unworthy thing; but it is even
meaner and more unworthy to bluster first, and then
either submit or else refuse to make those prepara-
tions which can alone obviate the necessity for sub-
mission. I believe with all my heart in the Monroe
Doctrine, and I believe also that the great mass of
the American people are loyal to it; but it is worse
than idle to announce our adherence to this doctrine

A Forgotten Maxim 281

and yet to decline to take measures to show that
ours is not mere lip lo)ralty. We had far better
submit to interference by foreign powers with the
affairs of this continent than to announce that we
will not tolerate such interference, and yet refuse to
make ready the means by which alone we can prevent
it. In public as in private life, a bold front tends
to ensure peace and not strife. If we possess a for-
midable navy, small is the chance indeed that we
shall ever be dragged into a war to uphold the Mon-
roe Doctrine. If we do not possess such a navy,
war may be forced on us at any time.

It is certain, then, that we need a first-class navy.
It is equally certain that this should not be merely a
navy for defence. Our chief harbors should, of
course, be fortified and put in condition to resist the
attack of an enemy's fleet; and one of our prime
needs is an ample force of torpedo-boats to use pri-
marily for coast defence. But in war the mere de-
fensive never pays, and can never result in an)rthing
but disaster. It is not enough to parry a blow.
The surest way to prevent its repetition is to return
it. No master of the prize ring ever fought his way
to supremacy by mere dexterity in avoiding punish-
ment. He had to win by inflicting punishment. If
the enemy is g^ven the choice of time and place to
attack, sooner or later he will do irreparable damage,
and if he is at any point beaten back, why, after all,
it is merely a repulse, and there are no means of fol-
lowing it up and making it a rout. We can not rely
upon coast protection alone. Forts and heavy land

282 A Forgotten Maxim

guns and torpedo-boats are indispensable, and the
last, on occasion, may be used for offensive purposes
also. But in the present state of naval and military
knowledge we must rely mainly, as all gjeat nations
always have relied, on the battleship, the fighting
ship of the line. Gunboats and light cruisers serve
an excellent purpose, and we could not do without
them. In time of peace they are the police of the
seas ; in time of war they would do some harrying of
commerce, and a great deal of scouting and skirmish-
ing ; but our main reliance must be on the great arm-
ored battleships with their heavy guns and shot-
proof vitals. In the last resort we must trust to the
ships whose business it is to fight and not to run,
and who can themselves go to sea and strike at the
enemy when they choose, instead of waiting peace-
fully to receive his blow when and where he deems
it best to deliver it. If in the event of war our fleet
of battleships can destroy the hostile fleet, then our
coasts are safe from the menace of serious attack;
even a fight that ruined our fleet would probably
so shatter the hostile fleet as to do away with all
chance of invasion; but if we have no fleet where-
with to meet the enemy on the high seas, or to antici-
pate his stroke by our own, then every city within
reach of the tides must spend men and money in
preparation for an attack that may not come, but
which would cause crushing and irredeemable disas-
ter if it did come.

Still more is it necessary to have a fleet of great
battleships if we intend to live up to the Monroe

A Forgotten Maxim 283

Doctrine, and to insist upon its observance in the
two Americas and the islands on either side of
them. If a foreign power, whether in Europe or
Asia, should determine to assert its position in those
lands wherein we feel that our influence should
be supreme, there is but one way in which we can
effectively interfere. Diplomacy is utterly useless
where there is no force behind it ; the diplomat is the
servant, not the master, of the soldier. The pros-
perity of peace, commercial and material prosperity,
gives no weight whatever when the clash of arms
comes. Even great naked strength is useless if there
is no immediate means through which that strength
can manifest itself. If we mean to protect the people
of the lands who look to us for protection from
tyranny and aggression; if we mean to uphold our
interests in the teeth of the formidable Old- World
powers, we can only do it by being ready at any
time, if the provocation is sufficient, to meet them
on the seas, where the battle for supremacy must
be fought. Unless we are prepared so to meet
them, let us abandon all talk of devotion to the
Monroe Doctrine or to the honor of the American
name.

This nation can not stand still if it is to retain
its self-respect, and to keep undimmed the honor-
able traditions inherited from the men who with the
sword founded it and by the sword preserved it.
We ask that the work of upbuilding the Navy, and
of putting the United States where it should be
put among maritime powers, go forward without

284 A Forgotten Maxim

a break. We ask this not in the interest of war,
but in the interest of peace. No nation should ever
wage war wantonly, but no nation should ever
avoid it at the cost of the loss of national honor.
A nation should never fight unless forced to; but
it should always be ready to fight. The mere fact
that it is ready will generally spare it the necessity
of fighting. If this country now had a fleet of
twenty battleships their existence would make it
all the more likely that we should not have war. It
is very important that we should, as a race, keep the
virile fighting qualities and should be ready to use
them at need; but it is not at all important to use
them imless there is need. One of the surest ways
to attain these qualities is to keep our Navy in first-
class trim. There never is, and never has been,
on our part a desire to use a weapon because of its
being well-tempered. There is not the least danger
that the possession of a good navy will render this
country overbearing toward its neighbors. The
direct contrary is the truth.

An unmanly desire to avoid a quarrel is often
the surest way to precipitate one; and utter tmreadi-
ncss to fight is even surer. If at the time of our
trouble with Chili, six years ago, we had not al-
ready i)ossessed the nucleus of the new navy we
should almost certainly have been forced into fight-
ing, and even as it was trouble was only averted
because of the resolute stand then taken by the
President and by the officers of the Navy who were
on the spot. If at that time the Chilians had been

A Forgotten Maxim 285

able to get ready the battleship which was building
for them, a war would almost certainly have fol-
lowed, for we had no battleship to put against it.

If in the future we have war, it will almost cer-
tainly come because of some action, or lack of
action, on our part in the way of refusing to accept
responsibilities at tlie proper time, or failing to
prepare for war when war does not threaten. An
ignoble peace is even worse than an unsuccessful
war ; but an unsuccessful war would leave behind it
a legacy of bitter memories which would hurt our
national development for a generation to come. It
is true that no nation could actually conquer us,
owing to our isolated position ; but we would be seri-
ously harmed, even materially, by disasters that
stopped far short of conquest ; and in these matters,
which are far more important than things material,
we could readily be damaged beyond repair. No
material loss can begin to compensate for the loss
of national self-respect. The damage to our com-
mercial interests by the destruction of one of our
coast cities would be as nothing compared to the
humiliation which would be felt by every American
worthy of the name if we had to submit to such an
injury without amply avenging it. It has been
finely said that "a gentleman is one who is willing
to lay down his life for little things"; that is for
those things which seem little to the man who cares
only whether shares rise or fall in value, and to the
timid doctrinaire who preaches timid peace from
his cloistered study.

286 A Forgotten Maxim

Much of that which is best and highest in national
character is made up of glorious memories and tra-
ditir^s. The fight well fought, the life honorably
lived, the death bravely met — those count for more
in building a high and fine type of temper in a na-
tion than any possible success in the stodc maiicet,
than any possible prosperity in commerce or manu-
factures. A rich banker may be a valuable and use-
ful citizen, but not a thousand rich bankers can
leave to the country such a heritage as Farragjut
left, when, lashed in the rigging of the Hartford,
he forged past the forts and over the unseen death
below, to try his wooden stem against the ironclad
hull of the great Confederate ram. The people of
some given section of our country may be better off
because a shrewd and wealthy man has built up
therein a great manufacturing business, or has ex-
tended a line of railroad past its doors; but the
whole nation is better, the whole nation is braver,
because Gushing pushed his little torpedo-boat
through the darkness to sink beside the sinking
Albemarle.

Every feat of heroism makes us forever indebted
to the man who performed it. All daring and
courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, all de-
votion to the ideal of honor and the glory of the
flag*, make for a finer and nobler type of manhood.
It is not only those who do and dare and endure that
are benefited; but also the countless thousands who
are not themselves called upon to face the peril, to
show the strength, or to win the reward. All of us

A Forgotten Maxim 287

lift our heads higher because those of our country-
men whose trade it is to meet danger have met it
well and bravely. All of us are poorer for every
base or ignoble deed done by an American, for every
instance of selfishness or weakness or folly on the
part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off
when any of us fails at any point in his duty toward
the State in time of peace, or his duty toward the
State in time of war. If ever we had to meet defeat
at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit
tamely to wrong or insult, every man among us
worthy of the name of American would feel dis-
honored and debased. On the other hand, the
memory of every triumph won by Americans, by
just so much helps to make each American nobler
and better. Every man among us is so much the
better prepared for the duties of citizenship because
of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has
triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and
tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in
the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on
to triumph. There are higher things in this life than
the soft and easy enjoyment of material comfort.
It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that
a nation must win greatness. We ask for a great
navy, partly because we think that the possession
of such a navy is the surest guaranty of peace, and
partly because we feel that no national life is worth
having if the nation is not willing, when the need
shall arise, to stake everything on the supreme ar-
bitrament of war, and to pour out its blood, its

288 A Forgotten Maxim

treasure, and its tears like water, rather than submit
to the loss of honor and renown.

In closing, let me repeat that we ask for a great
navy, we ask for an armament fit for the nation's
needs, not primarily to fight, but to avert fighting.
Preparedness deters the foe and maintains right
by the show of ready might without the use of
violence. Peace, like freedom, is not a gift that
tarries long in the hands of cowards, or of those too
feeble or too short-sighted to deserve it; and we
ask to be given the means to ensure that honorable
peace which alone is worth having.

VI
NATIONAL LIFE AND CHARACTER*

IN "National Life and Character; a Forecast*' Mr.
Charles H. Pearson, late fellow of Oriel College,
Oxford, and sometime Minister of Education in
Victoria, has produced one of the most notable
books of the end of the century. Mr. Pearson is
not always quite so careful as he might be about his
facts; many of the conclusions he draws from them
seem somewhat strained; and with much of his
forecast most of us would radically disagree. Nev-
ertheless, no one can read this book without feeling
his thinking powers greatly stimulated; without
being forced to ponder problems of which he was
previously wholly ignorant, or which he but half
understood ; and without realizing that he is dealing
with the work of a man of lofty thought and of deep
and philosophic insight into the world-forces of the
present.

Mr. Pearson belongs to the melancholy or pessi-
mist school, which has become so prominent in Eng-
land during the last two or three decades, and which
has been represented there for half a century. In
fact, the note of despondency seems to be the domi-
nant note among Englishmen of high cultivation at

* The Sewanee Review, August, 1894.

'3 Vol. I.

290 National Life and Character

the present time. It is as marked among their
statesmen and publicists as among their men of let-
ters, Mr. Balfour being particularly happy in his ca-
pacity to express in good English, and with mudi
genuine elevation of thought a profound disbelief
in nineteenth century progress, and an equally pro-
found distrust of the future toward which we are all
traveling.

For much of this pessimism and for many of the
prophecies which it evokes, there is no excuse what-
soever. There may possibly be good foundation for
the pessimism as to the future sho\\Ti by men like
Mr. Pearson ; but hitherto the writers of the stamp
of the late "Cassandra" Greg, who have been pessi-
mistic about the present, have merely betrayed their
own weakness or their own incapacity to judge con-
temporary persons and events. The weakling, the
man who can not struggle with his fellow-men and
with the conditions that surround him, is very apt
to think these men and these conditions bad; and if
he has the gift of writing, he puts these thoughts
down at some length on paper. Very strong men,
moreover, if of morose and dyspeptic temper, are
apt to rail at the present, and to praise the past sim-
ply because they do not live in it. To any man
who will consider the subject from a scientific point
of view, with a desire to get at the truth, it is need-
less to insist on the fact that at no period of the.
world's history has there been so much happiness
generally diffused among mankind as now.

At no period of the world's history has life been

National Life and Character 291

so full of interest and of possibilities of excitement
and enjoyment as for us who live in the latter half
of the nineteenth century. This is not only true as
far as the working classes are concerned, but it is
especially true as regards the men of means, and
above all of those men of means who also possess
brains and ambition. Never before in the world's
history have there been such opportunities thrown
open to men, in the way of building new common-
wealths, exploring new countries, conquering king-
doms, and trying to adapt the governmental policy
of old nations to new and strange conditions. The
half-century which is now closing has held out
to the people who have dwelled therein some of the
great prizes of history. Abraham Lincoln and
Prince Bismarck have taken their places among the
world's worthies. Mighty masters of war have
arisen in America, in Germany, in Russia ; Lee and
Grant, Jackson and Farragut, Moltke, SkobeleflF, and
the Red Prince. The work of the chiefs of mechan-
ical and electrical invention has never been equaled
before, save perhaps by what was done in the first
half of this same century. Never before have there
been so many opportunities for commonwealth build-
ers; new States have been pitched on the banks of
the Saskatchewan ; the Columbia, the Missouri, and
the Colorado, on the seacoast of Australia, and in
the interior of Central Africa. Vast regions have
been won by the sword. Burmah and Turkestan,
Egypt and Matabeleland, have rewarded the prowess
of English and Russian conquerors, exactly as, when

292 National Life and Character

the glon- of Rome was at its height, remote Medi-
terranean provinces furnished triumphs to the great
militarj' leaders of the Eternal City. English ad-
ministrators govern subject empires larger than
those conquered by Alexander. In letters no name
has been produced that will stand with the first
half-dozen of all literature, but there have been very
many borne by men whose effect upon the literatures
of their own countries has been profound, and whose
works will last as long as the works of any men
written in the same tongues. In science even more
has been done: Danvin has fairly revolutionized
thought: and many others stand but a step below
him.

All this means only that the opportunities have
been exceptionally great for the men of exception-
ally gjeat powers ; but they have also been great for
the men of ordinary powers. The workingman is,
on the whole, better fed, better clothed, better
housed, and provided with greater opportunities for
pleasure and for mental and spiritual improvement
than ever before. The man with ability enough to
become a lawmaker has the fearful joy of grappling
with problems as important as any the administra-
tors and legislators of the past had to face. The
ordinary man of adventurous tastes and a desire to
get all out of life that can be gotten, is beyond meas-
ure better off than were his forefathers of one, two,
or three centuries back. He can travel round the
world; he can dwell in any country he wishes; he
can explore strange regions ; he can spend years by

National Life and Character 293

himself in the wilderness, hunting great game; he
can take part in a campaign here and there. Whither-
soever his tastes lead him, he finds that he has far
greater capacity conferred upon him by the condi-
tions of nineteenth-century civilization to do some-
thing of note than ever a man of his kind had before.
If he is observant, he notes all around him the play
of vaster forces than have ever before been exerted,
working, half blindly, half under control, to bring
about immeasurable results. He sees going on be-
fore his eyes a great transfer of population and civ-
ilization, which is making America north of the Rio
Grande, and Australia, English-speaking continents ;
which has filled Central and South America with
States of uncertain possibilities; which is creating
for the first time a huge Aryan nation across the
entire north of Asia, and which is working changes
in Africa infinitely surpassing in importance all those
that have ever taken place there since the days when
the Bantu peoples first built their beehive-huts on the
banks of the Congo and the Zambesi. Our century
has teemed with life and interest.

Yet this is the very century at which Carlyle
railed ; and it is strange to think that he could speak
of the men at that very moment engaged in doing
such deeds, as belonging to a worn-out age. His
vision was clear to see the importance and the true
bearing of England's civil war of the seventeenth
century, and yet he remained mole-blind to the
vaster and more important civil war waged be-
fore his very eyes in nineteenth-century America.

194 Xatioaal Life and Character

Thi! heroism of N'aacby and Worcester and lliaden
hid from him the heroism of Balaklava and Inker-
mann, of Ladmow and DeQiL He cotxld appreciate
at their worth the campaigns of the Seven Years'
War. and yet could hardly tmderstand those waged
between the armies of the Pototnac and of North-
ern \'irginia. He was fairfy inspired by the fury
and agony and terror of the struggle at Kunners-
dorf, and yet could not appreciate the immensely
greater importance of the death-wrestle that reeled
rounrl Gettj'sburg. His e>'es were so dazzled by the
great dramas of the past that he could not see the
even greater drama of the present It is but the
tore truth to say that never have the rewards been
greater, never has there been more chance for doing
work of great and lasting value, than this last half
of the nineteenth century has offered alike to states-
man and soldier, to explorer and commonwealth-
builder, to the captain of industry, to the man of let-
ters, and to the man of sdence. Never has life been
more interesting to each to take part in. Never has
there !)ccn a greater output of good work done both
ijy the few and by the many.

Nevertheless, signs do not fail that we are on the
cvc of great changes, and that in the next century
wc shall see the conditions of our lives, national and
individual, modified after a sweeping and radical
fashion. Many of the forces that make for national
greatness and for individual happiness in the nine-
teenth century will be absent entirely, or will act
with greatly diminished strength, in the twentieth.

National Life and Character 295

Many of the forces that now make for evil will by
that time have gained greatly in volume and power.
It is foolish to look at the future with blind and
careless optimism; quite as foolish as to gaze at it
only through the dun-colored mists that surround
the preachers of pessimism. It is always best to
look at facts squarely in the face, without blinking
them, and to remember that, as has been well said,
in the long run even the most uncomfortable truth
is a safer companion than the pleasantest falsehood.

Whether the future holds good or evil for us does
not, it is true, alter our duty in the present. We
must stand up valiantly in the fight for righteous-
ness and wisdom as we see them, and must let the
event turn out as it may. Nevertheless, even though
there is little use in pondering over the future, most
men of intelligence do ponder over it at times, and
if we think of it at all, it is well to think clearly.

Mr. Pearson writes a forecast of what he believes
probably will, or at least very possibly may happen
in the development of national life and character
during the era upon which we are now entering.
He is a man who has had exceptional advantages for
his work ; he has studied deeply and traveled widely ;
he has been a diligent reader of books and a keen
observer of men. To a careful training in one of the
oldest of the world's universities he has added long
experience as an executive officer in one of the
world's youngest commonwealths. He writes with
power and charm. His book is interesting in man-
ner, and is still more interesting in matter, for he

296 National Life and Character

has tliought deeply and faithfully over subjects 01
immense importance to the future of all the human
race. He possesses a mind of marked originality.
Moreover, he always faithfully tries to see facts as
they actually are. He is, it seems to me, unduly
pessimistic ; but he is not pessimistic of set purpose,
nor does he adopt pessimism as a cult. He tries
hard, and often successfully, to make himself see
and to make himself state forces that are working for
good. We may or may not differ from him, but it be-
hooves us, if we do, to state our positions guard-
edly; for we are dealing with a man who has dis-
played much research in getting at his facts and
much honesty in arriving at his rather melancholy
conclusions.

The introduction of Mr. Pearson's book is as
readable as the chapters that follow, and may best
be considered in connection with the first of these
chapters, which is entitled "The Unchangeable Lim-
its of the Higher Races." I am almost tempted to
call this the most interesting of the six chapters of
the book, and yet one can hardly do so when ab-
sorbed in reading any one of the other five. Mr.
Pearson sees what ought to be evident to every one,
but apparently is not, that what he calls the "higher
races," that is, the races that for the last twenty-five
hundred years (but, it must be remembered, only
during the last twenty-five hundred years) have led
the world, can prosper only under conditions of soil
and climate analogous to those obtaining in their
old European homes. Speaking roughly, this means

National Life and Character 297

that they can prosper only in the temperate zones,
north and south.

Four hundred years ago the temperate zones were
very thinly peopled indeed, while the tropical and
sub-tropical regions were already densely populated.
The great feature in the world's history for the last
four centuries has been the peopling of these vast,
scantily inhabited regions by men of the European
stocks; notably by men speaking English, but also
by men speaking Russian and Spanish. During
the same centuries these European peoples have for
the first time acquired an enormous ascendency over
all other races. Once before, during the days of
the Greco-Macedonian and Roman supremacy, Eu-
ropean peoples possessed a somewhat similar su-
premacy ; but it was not nearly as great, for at that
period America and Australia were unknown, Africa
south of the Sahara was absolutely unaffected by
either Roman or Greek, and all but an insignifi-
cant portion of Asia was not only without the pale
of European influence, but held within itself im-
mense powers of menace to Europe, and contained
old and peculiar civilizations, still flourishing in their
prime. All this has now been changed. Great En-
glish-speaking nations have sprung up in America
north of the Rio Grande, and are springing up in
Australia. The Russians, by a movement which has
not yet fired the popular imagination, but which
all thinking men recognize as of incalculable im-
portance, are building a vast State in northern Asia,
stretching from the Yellow Sea to the Ural Moun-

298 National Life and Character

tainf. Tropical America is parceled out anxxig
States partly of European bkxxi. and mainly Euro-
pean in thought, speech and religion ; while tropical
Asia and Africa have been divided among Euro-
pean powers, and are held in more or less oomidete
subjection by their military and dvil agents. It is
no wonder that men who are content to look at
things superficially, and who think that the ten-
dencies that have tritunphed durii^ the last two
centuries are as immutable in their workings as
great natural laws, should speak as if it were a mere
question of time when the civilized peoples should
overrun and occupy the entire world, exactly as they
now do Europe and North America.

Mr. Pearson points out with great clearness the
groundlessness of this belief. He deserves especial
praise for discriminating between the importance
of ethnic, and of merely political, conquests. The
conquest by one country of another populous coun-
try always attracts great attention at the time, and
has wide momentary effects ; but it is of insignificant
importance when compared with the kind of armed
settlement which causes new nations of an old stock
to spring up in new countries. The campaigns car-
ried on by the lieutenants of Justinian against Goth
and Vandal, Bulgarian and Persian, seemed in the
eyes of civilized Europe at that time of incalculably
greater moment than the squalid warfare being
waged in England between the descendants of Low
Dutch sea-thieves and the aboriginal British. Yet,
in reality, it was of hardly any consequence in his-

National Life and Character 299

tory whether Belisarius did or did not succeed in
overthrowing the Ostrogoth merely to make room
for the Lombard, or whether the Vandal did or
did not succumb to the Roman instead of succumb-
ing to the Saracen a couple of centuries later ; while
it was of the most vital consequence to the whole
future of the world that the English should supplant
the Welsh as masters of Britain.

Again, in our own day, the histories written of
Great Britain during the last century teem with her
dealings with India, while Australia plays a very
insignificant part indeed; yet, from the standpoint
of the ages, peopling of the great island-continent
with men of the English stock is a thousand-fold
more important than the holding Hindoostan for a
few centuries.

Mr. Pearson understands and brings out clearly
that in the long run a conquest must fail when it
means merely the erection of an insignificant gov-
erning caste. He shows clearly that the men of our
stock do not prosper in tropical countries. In the
New World they leave a thin strain of their blood
among and impose their laws, language, and forms
of government on the aboriginal races, which then
develop on new and dimly drawn lines. In the Old
World they fail to do even this. In Asia they may
leave a few tens of thousands, or possibly hundreds
of thousands, of Eurasians to form an additional
caste in a caste-ridden community. In tropical
Africa they may leave here and there a mulatto
tribe like the Griquas. But it certainly has not yet

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National Life and Character 301

tribes like those of the Soudan, with a similar re-
ligion and morality. It is almost impossible that
they will not in the end succeed in throwing off the
yoke of the European outsiders, though this end may
be, and we hope will be, many centuries distant.
In America, most of the West Indies are becoming
negro islands. The Spaniard, however, because of
the ease with which he drops to a lower ethnic level,
exerts a much more permanent injfluence than the
Englishman upon tropic aboriginal races; and the
tropical lands which the Spaniards and Portuguese
once held, now contain, and always will contain,
races which, though different from the Aryan of
the Temperate Zone, yet bridge the gulf between him
and the black, red, and yellow peoples who have
dwelt from time immemorial on both sides of the
equator.

Taking all this into consideration, therefore, it
is most likely that a portion of Mr. Pearson's fore-
cast, as r^^rds the people of the tropic zones, will
be justified by events. It is impossible for the dom-
inant races of the temperate zones ever bodily to dis-
place the peoples of the tropics. It is highly prob-
able that tfiese people will cast off the yoke of their
European conquerors sooner or later, and will be-
come independent nations once more; though it is
also possible that the modern conditions of easy
travel may permit the permanent rule in the tropics
of a vigorous northern race, renewed by a complete
change every generation.

Mr. Pearson's further proposition is that these

302 National Life and Character

black, red, and yellow nations, when thus freed,
will threaten the dominance of the higher peoples,
possibly by military, certainly by industrial, rivalry,
and that the mere knowledge of the equality of these
stocks will cow and dispirit the higher races.

This part of his argument is open to very serious
objections. In the first place, Mr. Pearson entirely
fails to take into account the difference in character
among the nationalities produced in the tropics as
the result of European conquest. In Asia, doubt-
less, the old races now submerged by European
predominance will reappear, profoundly changed in
themselves, and in their relations to one another,
but as un-European as ever, and not appreciably
affected by any intermixture of European blood.
In Africa, the native States will probably range
somewhere between the Portuguese half-caste and
quarter-caste communities now existing on certain
of the tropic coasts, and pastoral or agricultural
communities, with a Mohammedan religious cult
and Asiatic type of government, produced by the
infusion of a conquering Semitic or hamitic caste on
a conquered negro people. There may be a dominant
caste of European blood in some of these States,
but that is all. In tropical America, the change has
already taken place. The States that there exist
will not materially alter their form. It is possible
that here and there populations of Chinese, pure
or half-caste, or even of coolies, may spring ty? ; but
taken as a whole, these States will be in the future
what they are now, that is, they will be by blood

National Life and Character 303

partly white, but chiefly Indian or negfro, with their
language, law, religion, literature, and governmental
systems approaching those of Europe and North
America.

Suppose that what Mr. Pearson foresees comes to
pass, and that the black and yellow races of the
world attain the same independence already achieved
by the mongrel reddish race. Mr. Pearson thinks
that this will expose us to two dangers. The first
is that of actual physical distress caused by the com-
petition of the teeming m)rriads of the tropics, or
perhaps by their invasion of the temperate zones.
Mr. Pearson himself does not feel any very great
anxiety about this invasion assuming a military
type, and I think that even the fear he does express
is unwarranted by the facts. He is immensely im-
pressed by the teeming population of China. He
thinks that the Chinese will some day constitute the
dominant portion of the population, both politically
and niunerically, in the East Indies, New Guinea,
and Farther India. In this he is probably quite
right; but such a change would merely mean the
destruction or submersion of Malay, Dyak, and Pa-
puan and would be of hardly any real consequence to
the white man. He further thinks that the Chinese
may jeopardize Russia in Asia. Here I am inclined
to think he is wrong. As far as it is possible to
judge in the absence of statistics, the Chinaman
at present is not increasing relatively as fast as the
Slav and the Anglo-Saxon. Half a century or so
more will put both of them within measurable dis-

304 National Life and Character

tance of equality with him, even in point of num-
bers. The movement of population in China is to-
ward the south, not the north ; the menace is real for
the English and French protectorates in the south;
in the north the difficulty hitherto has been to keep
Russian settlers from crossing the Chinese frontier.
When the great Trans-Siberian railroad is built, and
when a few millions more of Russian settlers stretch
from the Volga to the valley of the Amoor, the dan-
ger of a military advance by the Chinese against
Asiatic Russia will be entirely over, even granting
that it now exists. The Chinaman never has been,
and probably never will be, such a fighter as Turk
or Tartar, and he would have to possess an abso-
lutely overwhelming superiority of numbers to give
him a chance in a war of aggression against a
powerful military race. As yet, he has made no ad-
vance whatever toward developing an army capa-
ble of offensive work against European foes. In
China there are no roads ; the military profession is
looked down on; Chinese troops would be for-
midable only under a European leader, and a Eu-
ropean leader would be employed only from dire
necessity; that is to repel, not to undertake, an in-
vasion. Moreover, China is merely an aggregate of
provinces with a central knot at Pekin; and Pekin
could be taken at any time by a small trained army.
China will not menace Siberia until after under-
going some stupendous and undreamed-of internal
revolution. It is scarcely within the bounds of pos-
sibility to conceive of the Chinaman expelling the

National Life and Character 305

European settler from lands in which that settler
represents the bulk of a fairly thick population, not
merely a small intrusive caste. It is, of course, al-
ways possible that in the far-distant future (though
there is no sign of it now) China may travel on the
path of Japan, may change her policy, may develop
fleets and armies; but if she does do this, there is
no reason why this fact should stunt and dwarf the
people of the higher races. In Elizabeth's day the
Turkish fleets and armies stood toward those of Eu-
ropean powers in a far higher position than those of
China, or of the tropics generally, can ever hope to
stand in relation to the peoples of the temperate
zones; and yet this did not hinder the Elizabethan
!^e from being one of great note both in the field
of thought and in the field of action.

The anticipation of what might happen if India
became solidified seems even more ill-founded. Here
Mr. Pearson's position is that the very continuance
of European rule, doing away with war and famine,
produces an increase of population and a solidity
of the country, which will enable the people to over-
throw that European rule. He assumes that the
solidified and populous country will continue to re-
main such after the overflow of the Europeans,
and will be capable of deeds of aggression ; but, of
course, such an assumption is contrary to all proba-
bilities. Once the European rule was removed,
famine and internecine war would again become
chronic, and India would sink back to her former
place. Moreover, the long continuance of British

3o6 National Life and Character

rule undoubtedly weakens the warlike fibre of the
natives, and makes the usurer rather than the soldier
the dominant type.

The danger to which Mr. Pearson alludes, that
even the negro peoples may in time become vast mili-
tary powers, constituting a menace to Europe, really
seems to belong to a period so remote that every
condition will have changed to a degree rendering it
impossible for us to make any estimate in reference
thereto. By that time the descendant of the n^^
may be as intellectual as the Athenian. Even proph-
ecy must not look too many thousand years ahead.
It is perfectly possible that European settlements in
Africa will be swamped some time by the rising of
natives who outntunber them a hundred or a thou-
sand to one, but it is not possible that the negroes
will form a military menace to the people of the
north, at least for a space of time longer than that
which now separates us from the men of the River
Drift. The n^roid peoples, the so-called "hamitic,"
and bastard Semitic, races of eastern middle Africa
are formidable fighters ; but their strength is not fit
for any such herculean tasks.

There is much more reason to fear the industrial
competition of these races ; but even this will be less
formidable as the power of the State increases and
especially as the democratic idea obtains more and
more currency. The Russians are not democratic at
all, but the State is very powerful with them; and
therefore they keep the Chinese out of their Siberian
provinces, which are being rapidly filled up with a

National Life and Character 307

population mainly Slav, the remainder of which is
being Slavicized. From the United States and Aus-
tralia the Chinaman is kept out because the democ-
racy, with much clearness of vision, has seen that his
presence is ruinous to the white race.

Nineteenth-century democracy needs no more
complete vindication for its existence than the fact
that it has kept for the white race the best portions
of the New Worlds' surface, temperate America and
Australia. Had these regions been under aristo-
cratic governments, Chinese immigration would
have been encouraged precisely as the slave-trade
is encouraged of necessity by any slave-holding oli-
garchy, and the result would in a few generations
have been even more fatal to the white race; but
the democracy, with the clear instinct of race selfish-
ness, saw the race foe, and kept out the dangerous
alien. The presence of the negro in our Southern
States is a legacy from the time when we were ruled
by a trans-oceanic aristocracy. The whole civiliza-
tion of the future owes a debt of gratitude greater
than can be expressed in words to that democratic
policy which has kept the temperate zones of the
new and the newest worlds a heritage for the white
people.

As for the industrial competition, the Chinaman
and the Hindoo may drive certain kinds of white
traders from the tropics ; but more than this they can
not do. They can never change the status of the
white laborer in his own home, for the latter can al-
ways protect himself, and as soon as he is seriously

.;cui Nanooai Ixie md

tarrtTH uiri Uintgcni miui^i^iiitrx ^w&

.At. ?-arTCin :ear:= ±ar vnen )nce ±e ttjidc ^-^sf^^
ant nrtescncem:- -ne vmre leopies vril je jnnnliaxEEi
ir-.i 7*':' -..^1^ leaxr. int ±is loca nor iecni JiBsmankL
infi ncieeri ieems '^^rj .mproDaiikL It dit Eii^nsi-
man iharsid '.oa^ iis 3)ntiT}i prer 5t>tirfr Airxa md
Infiia, :t mUpit :rnieeti ]e i ierrcus liow :d "ite En-
ZiUiinon jf Brrnsin; ±c»:cri t oiay dc Trci xi -e*
.-ncrnbcr ±ar -he ^P^cninGn of Zn^isiimci -vhicrr
^re-*- ':n mmeftiareiy ifter Zagianti '.lad !osc Amer-
.ra, iccTiinEiiihefi fears :n iimsr, "ensrs. imi xieace
iiirh as. on die vhoie. no other Zngjish ^?e=ieranuii
r.-er accompiiaiicrL Z -en zrarrnng ±ar 3niaiii T?«re
rn '.fitter sa iCr. Pearscn dnnks ihe •vouiiL die eior-
mr.fifl nrATortj ot die Fing^isn-aPfniiTng oeapks. iLose
.t:ir,se Vjfnefl ire :n >_nier:ca and Aoscraiia. wrmui
ivi ibf^Anvdy ^inamyreri : ami Connngnral Earape
-vovii^l be Itttie mere aif erred rhan it was w&en Tiat
?ortiiipiese and L)Titx:h itxcesarreiv sawtner African
^inri Tndian empires 'iiminish. France has not bcea
;ittV,t«d by the exp^ilsicn ■:! ::ie French frcm rLijti :
ri^,r have the freed negroes cf Hajd ceen capable of
the vrcOkWe^t a^fgrefvii-e r^xvement. Xo American
r/r AaHtrali^in care?^ 'jn ±e least that -ie tan-colored
l^//[M^ of Br^i^il and Ecta-iior now live tmder gov-
ernments of their own instead of being nzled bj-
^\f^troy% horn Portugal and Spain ; and it is difficnh
to v*e '/(^hy they should hje materially affected by a
^irnWHT rMhrtf(t happening in regard to tbe people
^f )//r»^ tb^ ^/an^es or the upper Nile. Eycq if China

National Life and Character 309

does become a military power on the European
model, this fact will hardly affect the American and
Australian at the end of the twentieth century more
than Japan's effort to get admitted to the circle of
civilized nations has affected us at the end of the
nineteenth.

Finally, it must be borne in mind that if any one
of the tropical races ever does reach a pitch of indus-
trial and military prosperity which makes it a men-
ace to European and American countries, it will
almost necessarily mean that this nation has itself
become civilized in the process; and we shall then
simply be dealing with another civilized nation of
non-Aryan blood, precisely as we now deal with
Magyar, Fin, and Basque, without any thought of
their being ethnically distinct from Croat, Rouman,
or Wend.

In Mr. Pearson's second chapter he deals with the
stationary order of society, and strives to show that
while we are all tending toward it, some nations,
notably France, have practically come to it. He
adds that when this stationary state is reached, it will
produce general discouragement, and will probably
affect the intellectual energy of the people concerned.
He further points out that our races now tend to
change from faith in private enterprises to faith in
State organizations, and that this is likely to di-
minish the vigorous originality of any race. He
even holds that we already see the beginning of a
decadence, in the decline of speculative thought, and
still more in the way of mechanical inventions. It

3IO National Life and Character

is perfectly true that the laisses-foire doctrine of the
old school of political economists is receiving less
and less favor; but, after all, if we look at events
historically, we see that every race, as it has grown
to civilized greatness, has used the power of the
State more and more. A great State can not rely
on mere unrestricted individualism, any more than it
can afford to crush out all individualism. Within
limits, the mercilessness of private commercial war-
fare must be curbed as we have curbed the individ-
ual's right of private war power. It was not im-
til the power of the State had become great in Eng-
land, and until the lawless individualism of feudal
times had vanished, that the English people began
that career of greatness which has put them on a
level with the Greeks in point of intellectual achieve-
ment, and with the Romans in point of that material
success which is measured by extension through set-
tlement, by conquest, by triumphant warcraft and
statecraft As for Mr. Pearson's belief that we
now see a decline in speculative thought and in me-
chanical invention, all that can be said is that the
facts do not bear him out.

There is one side to this stationary state theory
which Mr. Pearson scarcely seems to touch. He
points out with emphasis the fact, which most people
are prone to deny, that the higher orders of every
society tend to die out; that there is a tendency,
on the whole, for both lower classes and lower
civilizations to increase faster than the higher.
Taken in the rough, his position on this point is

National Life and Character 311

undoubtedly correct. Progressive societies, and the
most progressive portions of society, fail to increase
as fast as the others, and often positively decrease.
The great commanders, great statesmen, great poets,
great men of science of any period taken together
do not average as many children who reach years
of maturity as a similar number of mechanics, work-
men, and farmers, taken at random. Nevertheless,
society progresses, the improvement being due main-
ly to the transmission of acquired characters, a
process which in every civilized State operates so
strongly as to counterbalance the operation of that
baleful law of natural selection which tells against
the survival of some of the most desirable classes.
Mr. Balfour, by the way, whose forecast for the
race is in some respects not unlike Mr. Pearson's,
seems inclined to adopt the view that acquired char-
acteristics can not be inherited; a position which,
even though supported by a few eminent names, is
hardly worthy serious refutation.

The point I wish to dwell upon here, however,
is that it is precisely in those castes which have
reached the stationary state, or which are positively
diminishing in numbers, that the highest culture and
best training, the keenest enjoyment of life, and
the greatest power of doing good to the community
are to be found at present. Unquestionably no com-
munity that is actually diminishing in numbers is
in a healthy condition: and as the world is now,
with huge waste places still to fill up, and with
much of the competition between the races reducing

312 National Life and Character

itself to the warfare of the cradle, no race has any
chance to win a great place unless it consists of good
breeders as well as of good fighters. But it may
well be that these conditions will change in the
future, when the other changes to which Mr. Pear-
son looks forward with such melancholy, are them-
selves brought about. A nation sufficiently populous
to be able to hold its own against aggression
from without, a nation which, while develcq)ing
the virtues of refinement, culture, and learning, has
yet not lost those of courage, bold initiative, and
military hardihood, might well play a great part
in the world, even though it had come to that sta-
tionary state already reached by the dominant castes
of thinkers and doers in most of the dominant races.
In Mr. Pearson^s third chapter he dwells on some
of the dangers of political development, and in es-
pecial upon the increase of the town at the expense
of the coimtry, and upon the growth of great stand-
ing armies. Excessive urban development undoubt-
edly does constitute a real and great danger. All
that can be said about it is that it is quite impos-
sible to prophesy how long this growth will con-
tinue. Moreover, some of the evils, as far as they
really exist, will cure themselves. If townspeople
do, generation by generation, tend to become stunted
and weak, then they will die out, and the problem
they cause will not be permanent; while on the
other hand, if the cities can be made healthy, both
physically and morally, the objections to them must
largely disappear. As for standing armies, Mr.-

National Life and Character 313

Pearson here seems to have too much thought of
Europe only. In America and AustraHa there is
no danger of the upgrowing of great standing
armies: and, as he well shows, the fact that every
citizen must imdergo military training, is by no
means a curse to the nations of Continental Europe.
There is one point, by the way, although a small
point, where it may be worth while to correct Mr.
Pearson's statement of a fact. In dwelling on what
is undoubtedly the truth, that raw militia are utterly
incompetent to make head against trained regular
forces, he finds it necessary to explain away the de-
feat at New Orleans. In doing this he repeats the
story as it has been told by British historians from
Sir Archibald Alison to Goldwin Smith. I hasten
to say that the misstatement is entirely natural on
Mr. Pearson's part; he was simply cop3dng, with-
out sufficiently careful investigation, the legend
adopted by one side to take the sting out of defeat.
The way he puts it is that six thousand British under
Pakenham, without artillery, were hurled against
strong works defended by twice their numbers, and
were beaten, as they would have been had the works
been defended by almost any troops in the world.
In the first place, Pakenham did not have six thou-
sand men ; he had almost ten thousand. In the second
place, the Americans, instead of being twice as nu-
merous as the British, were but little more than half
as numerous. In the third place, so far from being
without artillery, the British were much superior

to the Americans in this respect. Finally, they
14 Vol. I.

: X Ninr.riiL L^c md Qraracirr

Ls.v. tt: I ^r.."?ir:i:n -^^ -nuci ".es anny ±cai t&stt

i-.»-^^e vri: -ire T;ir[:e "mrrK -v^idi -vere ieaeatEfi by
T%i-jr.v.n ir >rrv Irtsans. Tie smpLe r" jxii is tisr
J'li-jfi^ix vu fc •^r7 ^x»: pyrenl ind ±ac ie liad
:r.«-:c?r -/.rr. "r'-i'-W Trinitn 'le lai •zn:megf in sncce^rrc
-^r.-XA:;jrji ^gc^rsr I-rlisrs vni S^amaris. ind drar
vr 'I'jt zrjrtt 'x:'jruzirrjs -\-*i«;r: -e -riiistn: Piken-

'.:j<«:t ifr. ?«irvx- i iiioil-^aj'-cs. pjdtj of in-
»tirxi« car. 'oc r^rfgn :r:rr: :«rr V.'ir :: 1^:2 re show
?.•'/■'.- -^tt^'tJ.^, r::':t::i <r* ^^ fice r^inei rggr:'ar?: and
^r, *r/:;i','v :tr:5::r.;^ txarr.c'.e -srs.* thir isoried at
^/<.\*!,trp.r, :r. rre-'-ir.-^. ir. :7>S. T^-hen a fear hundred
Vr^/i, re^::!ari a::^::k£d v.-::h ±c baj jcicc and dro^TC
;r. r/C^^i'^r.^ f::^:t frorr. a vcrv strong po6id«3ti, de-
ip^/.f/. hy a pcv/err::! art:"crv. fr.e times tbctr ncm-
f>^ of Plnsf!:-,?;, Scotch, ar.^ Ir*:h —litia.

Jr; Mr. Pe^irvor.'i fo^nh chapter he deals, from
a very noble -,tsiri'^!;>o:r.t. v.-:th s*:cr.e advantages of
ri;«tj//r,^I feeling. With this chapter and with his
prai-ve of pHir'uAhm, and jiarticulariy of that patriot-
i-tfn v/hich attaches itself to the whole country, and
riot t// any M'^f^vm of it, we can only express our
firarty ajrreement.

In liJH fifth chapter, on "The Decline of the Fam-
ily/' he Hct% forth, or seems to set forth, certain

National Life and Character 315

propositions with which I must as heartily dis-
agree. He seems to lament the change which is
making the irresponsible despot as much of an anom-
aly in the family as in the State. He seems to think
that this will weaken the family. It may do so, in
some instances, exactly as the abolition of a des-
potism may produce anarchy; but the movement is
essentially as good in one case as in the other. To
all who have known really happy family lives, that
is to all who have known or have witnessed the
greatest happiness which there can be on this earth,
it is hardly necessary to say that the highest ideal
of the family is attainable only where the father
and mother stand to each other as lovers and friends,
with equal rights. In these homes the children are
bound to father and mother by ties of love, respect,
and obedience, which are simply strengthened by
the fact that they are treated as reasonable beings
with rights of their own, and that the rule of the
household is changed to suit the changing years, as
childhood passes into manhood and womanhood.
In such a home the family is not weakened; it is
strengthened. This is no unattainable ideal. Every
one knows hundreds of homes where it is more or
less perfectly realized, and it is an ideal incom-
parably higher than the ideal of the beneficent auto-
crat which it has so largely supplanted.

The final chapter of Mr. Pearson's book is entitled
"The Decay of Character." He believes that our
world is becoming a world with less adventure and
energy, less brightness and hope. He believes that

c

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-:

* t

T:;r5

:ra

, - *»

::a

-

:'r.:iZ '

r.e

. ;

Niti.nai L;ic ind Character

/.-e .^cer. -vrTrten. all the great
:he jre2.i Lee.is -ione. Pie
::: .-: S^r^ie -. sialism in somt
: rrr :". r'.<\ ::: ■::.L:v:iu3.i inert and :he higher
%:::•> : r. .v. : .wi, '■.j.'joir.es?. Of j:urse. as to this.
•.■1 ::::i: ;,->:: '< -a:i i? ''r.:ii :r.en iiifer as :o what will
■«c ::'c ••rrec: : :r:r ".rcr^ vr'.r^e .vcrking he por-
:r:^;-. .:. ' '':'.-.', :: -: : > ■\:: i-e ::: :he jVmerican
!t:!::-.-:: .; . :.'. .^'er: '.:::: :::::. I: is to the lait
xjiTirt: ::::•: i; c "i"-^: i::.:c '^.c::.li^In 'A-ill ever :•:
.■'. •-■.c". :'. :? L-.\:re:::c f.-r:::. sa-e in a few placvis.
'.I x.■\:-;^. : .v.r>c. : .. .rr'ii::! extent -.vherever i
;h..;:cc :"' :tc .:: .. .. :':re icTX-.i-rrr-cn: exist: and :.: :
-jjiicrtr >i \hx: SiLic'.- .c:i !i :::.;• '^e asrly increai*-:-
>\iihMUi in any way i::n!T::-ii:!:g ::ie happiness
ciihcr *he :nany ir :hc :ew. Ir 's even concei"i":
thai I :"!iibnuii!'.':: n* iei^'sicLtive enactments •./
iKiinral t"orce> :nay greatly -eluce the inequaii": :■
')i 'vcalth \\iih'.»iu -ii :iny '.v:-.y liminishing the -:■
|K>\vcr oi cMJoynieiil m* -/jower :«.^r good work
v\ I Kit ait' 'i"w I lie favored cia<?es. In -nir own c:"
Mv ihc ijcsi \\'M"k '.Ki> ilwriy^ been ;?r'Muced by ^ .
\\lii> -ivc'l -M easier 'M' <«.'ciai circles where the 5t:\.-
■ un •>! cssfMi'iil C'.niii'M't was high: that is, w ■-
iiirn WL-ie well »'l<Hhcd, '.veil I'ed. well housed, anil •
pli-iiiv «m" l)Poks :umI ihc opportunity of using th«r
()iti where there was small room for extravac-- '
IitMiiv. We think that Mr. Pearson's fimdamer:
I'lu.i lieie is Iiis l)eliet that the raising of the rr.j-
iierrssjnlv iiieiuis tlic Knvering of the standard
hir lor tlic torluiiate few. Those of us who n:

National Liie aitd Character 317

live in communities where the imtive American
element is largest and where there is kast inequality
of conditions, know well that there is no reason
whatever in the nature of things why, in the future,
communities should not spring up where there shall
be no great extremes of poverty and wealth, and
where, nevertheless, the power of civilization and
the chances for happiness and for doing good wcMrk
shall be greater than ever before.

As to what Mr. Pearson says about the work of
the world which is best worth doing being now dc^ie,
the facts do not bear him out. He thinks that the
great poems have all been written, that the days
of the drama and the epic are past. Yet one of the
greatest plays that has ever been produced, always
excepting the plays of Shakespeare, was produced
in this century ; and if the world had to wait nearly
two thousand years after the vanishing of the Athe-
nian dramatists before Shakespeare appeared, and
two hundred years more before Goethe wrote his one
great play, we can wdl afford to suspend judgment
for a few hundred years at least, before asserting
that no country and no language will again produce
another great drama. So it is with the epic. We
are too near Milton, who came three thousand years
after Homer, to assert that the centuries to cc«ne
will never more see an epic. One race may grow
feeble and decrejrit and be unable to do any more
work ; but another may take its place. After a time
the Greek and Latin writers found that they had no
more to say; and a critic belonging to either na-

3i8 National Life and Character

tionality might have shaken his head and said that
all the great themes had been used up and all the
great ideas expressed; nevertheless, Dante, Cer-
vantes, Moliere, Schiller, Chaucer, and Scott, then
all lay in the future.

Again, Mr. Pearson speaks of statecraft at the
present day as oflFering fewer prizes, and prizts of
less worth than formerly, and as giving no chance for
the development of men like Augustus Caesar, Rich-
elieu, or Chatham. It is difficult to perceive how
these men can be considered to belong to a different
class from Bismarck, who is yet alive ; nor do we see
why any English-speaking people should regard a
statesman like Chatham, or far greater than Chat-
ham, as an impossibility nowadays or in the future.
We Americans at least will with difficulty be per-
suaded that there has ever been a time when the
nobler prize of achievement, suffering, and success
was offered to any statesman than was offered botH
to Washington and to Lincoln. So, when Mr. Pear-
son speaks of the warfare of civilized countries offer-
ing less chance to the individual than the warfare of
savage and barbarous times, and of its being far less
possible now than in old days for a man to make his
personal influence felt in warfare, we can only ex-
press our disagreement. No world-conqueror can
arise save in or next to highly civilized States.
There never has been a barbarian Alexander or
Csesar, Hannibal or Napoleon. Sitting Bull and
Rain-in-the-Face compare but ill with Von Moltke;
and no Norse king of all the heroic viking age

National Life and Character 319

even so much as began to exercise the influence upon
the warfare of his generation that Frederick the
Great exercised on his.

It is not true that character of necessity decays
with the growth of civilization. It may, of course,
be true in some cases. Civilization may tend to de-
velop upon the lines of Byzantine, Hindoo, and Inca ;
and there are sections of Europe and sections of the
United States where we now tend to pay heed ex-
clusively to the peaceful virtues and to develop only
a race of merchants, lawyers, and professors, who
will lack the virile qualities that have made our
race great and splendid. This development may
come, but it need not come necessarily, and, on
the whole, the probabilities are against its coming
at all.

Mr. Pearson is essentially a man of strength and
courage. Looking into the future the future seems
to him gray and unattractive ; but he does not preach
any unmanly gospel of despair. He thinks that in
time to come, though life will be freer than in the
past from dangers and vicissitudes, yet it will con-
tain fewer of the strong pleasures and of the oppor-
tunities for doing great deeds that are so dear to
mighty souls. Nevertheless, he advises us all to
front it bravely whether our hope be great or little ;
and he ends his book with these fine sentences:
"Even so, there will still remain to us ourselves.
Simply to do our work in life, and to abide the issue,
if we stand erect before the eternal calm as cheer-
fully as our fathers faced the eternal unrest, may be

320 National Lift and Charartry

iMiUer traming^ iur uur bOul& than the iaith in
jirmrrcBb."

W'f do not agree with him that there wiH be only
thib eternal calnfi to face : we do not agree i»itfa him
tlriat tilt future holds for us a time when we shall
auk nothing frcim the day but lo live, nor irom the
future but that we may not deteriorate. We do not
agree with him that there is a day approaching when
tlit lower raceb will predominate in the world and
the higgler races will have lost their noUest elrmmts.
liut after all, it matters little what view we take
of tlK: future if. in our practice, we but do as he
preaclH:b, and face resolutely whatever fate may ha^'e
in store. We, ourse]\es, are not certain that prog-
reb« ib absured: we only assert that it may be as-
*;ured if we Ixit live wise, brave, and upright hves.
\\'e do nf>t know whether the future has in store for
Ub calm or unrest. We can not know beyond perad-
venlure whether we can prevent the higher races
in/m losing their nobler traits and from being over-
whehneil by the lower races. On the whole, we think
that the greatest victories are yet to be won, the
greatest deeds yet to be done, and that there are yet
in store for our ijeoi>les and for the causes that we
ui>liold grander triumi>hs than have ever yet been
{><:ore<l. litU l)e this as it may, we gladly agree that
Ih*^ one plain ditty of every man is to face the fu-
ture as he faces the i>resent, regardless of what it
may have in store for him, and, turning toward the
li|{ht as lie sees the light, to play his part manfully,
us a man among men.

VII

"SOCIAL EVOLUTION"*

MR. KIDD'S "Social Evolution'' is a sugg^s*
tive, but a very crude, book ; for the wTiter is
burdened by a certain mixture of dogmatism and
superficiality, which makes him content to accept
half truths and insist that they are whole truths*
Nevertheless, though the book appeals chiefly to
minds of the kind which are uncharitably descril)ed
as "half-baked," Mr. Kidd does suggest certain lines
of thought which are worth following — though
rarely to his conclusions.

He deserves credit for appreciating what he calls
"the outlook.*' He sketches graphically, and with
power, the problems which now loom up for settle-
ment before all of us who dwell in Western lands ;
and he portrays the varying attitudes of interest*
alarm, and hope with which the thinkers and work-
ers of the day regard these problems. He points
out that the problems which now face us are by no
means parallel to those that were solved by our fore-
fathers one, two, or three centuries ago. The great
political revolutions seem to be about complete and
the time of the great social revolutions has arrived.
We are all peering eagerly into the future to try to

* North American Review, July, i8qS.

(390

322 Social Evolution

forecast the action of the great dumb forces set in
operation by the stupendous industrial revolution
which has taken place during the present century.
We do not know what to make of the vast displace-
ments of population, the expansion of the towns, the
unrest and discontent of the masses, and the uneasi-
ness of those who are devoted to the present order
of things.

Mr. Kidd sees these problems, but he gropes
blindly when he tries to forecast their solution. He
sees that the progress of mankind in past ages can
only have been made under and in accordance with
certain biological laws, and that these laws continue
to work in human society at the present day. He
realizes the all-importance of the laws which govern
the reproduction of mankind from generation to gen-
eration, precisely as they govern the reproduction of
the lower animals, and which, therefore, largely gov-
ern his progress. But he makes a cardinal mistake
in treating of this kind of progress. He states with
the utmost positiveness that, left to himself, man has
not the slightest innate tendency to make any on-
ward progress whatever, and that if the conditions
of life allowed each man to follow his own inclina-
tions the average of one generation would always
tend to sink below the average of the preceding.
This is one of the sweeping generalizations of which
Mr. Kidd is fond, and which mar so much of his
work. He evidently finds great difficulty in stat-
ing a general law with the proper reservations and
with the proper moderation of phrase; and so he

Social Evolution 323

enunciates as truths statements which contain a
truth, but which also contain a falsehood. What
he here says is undoubtedly true of the world, taken
as a whole. It is in all probability entirely false of
the highest sections of society. At any rate, there
are numerous instances where the law he states does
not work; and of course a single instance oversets
a sweeping declaration of such a kind.

There can be but little quarrel with what Mr.
Kidd says as to the record of the world being a rec-
ord of ceaseless progress on the one hand, and cease-
less stress and competition on the other; although
even here his statement is too broad, and his terms
are used carelessly. When he speaks of progress
being ceaseless, he evidently means by progress sim-
ply change, so that as he uses the word it must be
understood to mean progress backward as well as
forward. As a matter of fact, in many forms of
life and for long ages there is absolutely no progress
whatever, and no change, the forms remaining prac-
tically stationary.

Mr. Kidd further points out that the first neces-
sity for every successful form engaged in this strug-
gle is the capacity for reproduction beyond the lim-
its for which the conditions of life comfortably pro-
vide, so that competition and selection must not only
always accompany progress, but must prevail in
every form of life which is not actually retrograd-
ing. As already said, he accepts without reserva-
tion the proposition that if all the individuals of
every generation in any species were allowed to

3^4 Social Evolution

{>r\ifMigatc their kind equally, the average of each
K^enention would tend to fall below the preceding.
Fnxn this position he draws as a corollary, that
the wider the limits of sdection, the keener the ri-
vair}- and the more rigid the selection, just so much
greater will be the progress; while for any progress
at all there must be some rivalry in selection, so that
ever>' progressive form must lead a life of oontintial
strain and stress as it travels its upward path. This
again is tnie in a measure, but it is not true as
bn^adly a^ Mr. Kidd has stated it. The rivalry of
natural selection is but one of the features in prog-
ress. Other things being equal, the species vidiere
this rivalry is keenest will make most impress ; but
then '"other things*' never are equal In actual Hfe
those species make most progress which are furthest
removed from the point where the limits of selection
are very wide, the sdecticxi itself very rigid, and the
rivalry very keen. Of course the selection is most
rigid where the fecundity of the animal is greatest;
but it is precisely the forms which have most fe-
cundity that have made least progress. Some time
in the remote past the guinea-pig and the dog had
a common ancestor. The fecundity of the guinea-
pig is much greater than that of the dog. Of a
given number of guinea-pigs bom, a much smaller
proportion are able to survive in the keen rivalry, so
that the limits of selection are wider, and the selec-
tion itself more rigid ; nevertheless the prc^fress ma^
by the prc^nenitors of the dog since eocene days has
been much more marked and rapid than die progress

Social Evolution 32;

made by the progenitors of the guinea-pig in the
same time.

Moreover, in ^)eaking of the rise that has come
through the stress of ccxnp^tion in our modem so-
cieties, and of the keenness of this stress in the
societies that have gone fastest, Mr. Kidd overlooks
certain very curious features in human society. In
the first place, he speaks as thot^h the stress under
which nations make progress was primarily the stress
produced by multiplication beyond the limits of sub-
sistence. This, of course, would mean that in pro-
gressive societies the ntmiber of births and the ntrni-
ber of deaths would both be at a maximum, for it
is where the births and deaths are largest that the
struggle for life is keenest. If, as Mr. Kidd's hy-
pothesis assumes, progress was most marked where
the struggle for life was keenest, tiie European peo-
ples standing highest in the scale would be the South
Italians, the Polish Jews, and the people who live in
the congested districts of Ireland. As a matter of
fact, however, these are precisely the peoples who
have made least progress when compared with the
dominant strains among, for instance, the English
or Germans. So far is Mr. Kidd*s propositicm from
being true that, when studied in the light of the
facts, it is difficult to refrain from calling it the re-
verse of the truth. The race existing under condi-
tions which make the competition for bare existence
keenest, never progresses as fast as the race which
exists under less stringent conditions. There must
undoubtedly be a certain amount of competition, a

3^6 Social Evolution

certain amount of stress and strain, but it is equally
undoubted that if this competition becomes too se-
vere the race goes down and not up ; and it is further
true that the race existing under the severest stress
as re^rds this competition often fails to go ahead
as fast even in population as does the race where
the competition is less severe. No matter how large
the number of births may be, a race can not increase
if the number of deaths also grows at an accelerat-
ing rate.

To increase greatly a race must be prolific, and
there is no airse so great as the curse of barrenness,
whether for a nation or an individual. WTien a peo-
ple gets to the position even now occupied by the
mass of the French and by sections of the New
Englanders, where the death rate surpasses the
birth rate, then that race is not only fated to extinc-
tion, but it deser\"es extinction. WTien the ca-
pacity' and desire for fatherhood and motherhood
is lost the race goes down, and should go down; and
we need to have the plainest kind of plain speaking
addressed to those individuals who fear to bring
children into the world. But while this is all true,
it remains equally true that immoderate increase
in no way furthers the development of a race, and
does not always help its increase even in numbers.
The English-speaking peoples during the past two
centuries and a half have increased faster than any
others, yet there have been many other peoples whose
birth rate during the same period has stood higher.

Yet, again Mr. Kidd, in speaking of tiie stress of

Social Evolution 327

the conditions of progress in our modem societies,
fails to see that most of the stress to which he refers
does not have anything to do with increased diffi-
culty in obtaining a living, or with the propagation
of the race. The great prizes are battled for among
the men who wage no war whatever for mere sub-
sistence, while the fight for mere subsistence is keen-
est among precisely the classes which contribute
very little indeed to the progress of the race- The
generals and admirals, the poets, philosophers, his-
torians and musicians, the statesmen and judges, the
law-makers and law-givers, the men of arts and of
letters, the great captains of war and of industry —
all these come from the classes where the struggle
for the bare means of subsistence is least severe,
and where the rate of increase is relatively smaller
than in the classes below. In civilized societies the
rivalry of natural selection works against progress.
Progress is made in spite of it, for progress results
not from the crowding out of the lower classes by
the upper, but on the contrary from the steady rise
of the lower classes to the level of the upptr, as the
latter tend to vanish, or at most barely hold their
own. In progressive societies it is often the least
fit who survive; but, on the other hand, they and
their children often tend to grow more fit.

The mere statement of these facts is sufficient to
show not only how incorrect are many of Mr. Kidd's
premises and conclusions, but also how imwarranted
are some of the fears which he expresses for the fu-
ture. It is plain that the societies and sections of

3^K Social Evolutioa

stM-ieties where the individual's happiness is on die
whole highest, and where progress is most real and
valuable, are precisely these where the grinding com-
petition and the struggle for mere existence is least
severe. Undoubtedly in very progfressive society
there must be a certain sacrifice of individuals, so
that there must be a certain proportion of failures
in every generation ; but the actual facts of life prove
Ijeyond shadow of doubt that the extent of this
sacrifice has nothing to do with the rapidity or worth
of the progress. The nations that make most prog-
ress may do so at the expense of ten or fifteen indi-
viduals out of a hundred, whereas the nations that
make least progress, or even go backward, may sacri-
fice almost every man out of the hundred.

This last statement is in itself partly an answer
to the position taken by Mr. Kidd that there is for
the individual no "rational sanction" for the con-
ditions of progfress. In a prog^ressive community,
where the conditions provide for the happiness of
four-fifths or nine-tenths of the people, there is un-
doubtedly a rational sanction for progress both for
the community at large and for the great bulk of its
members; and if these members are on the whole
vigorous and intelligent, the attitude of the smaller
fraction who have failed will be a matter of little
consequence. In such a community the conflict be-
tween the interests of the individual and the organ-
ism of which he is a part, upon which Mr. Kidd lays
so much emphasis, is at a minimum. The stress is
severest, the misery and suffering greatest, among

Social Evolution 329

precisely the communities which have made least
progress — ^among the Bushmen, Australian black
fellows, and root-digger Indians, for instance.

Moreover, Mr. Kidd does not define what he
means by ^'rational sanction." Indeed one of his
great troubles throughout is his failure to make
proper definitions, and the extreme looseness with
which he often uses the definitions he does make*
Apparently by "rational" he means merely selfish,
and proceeds upon the assumption that "reason"
must always dictate to every man to do that which
will give him the greatest amount of individual
gratification at the moment, no matter what the cost
may be to others or to the community at large. This
IS not so. Side by side with the selfish develop-
ment in life there has been almost from the begin-
ning a certain amount of unselfish development too ;
and in the evolution of humanity the unselfish side
has, on the whole, tended steadily to increase at the
expense of the selfish, notably in the progressive
commimities about whose future development Mr.
Kidd is so ill at ease. A more supreme instance of
unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood can
not be imagined ; and when Mr. Kidd imj^ies, as he
does very clearly, that there is no rational sanction
for the unselfishness of motherhood, for the unself-
ishness of duty, or loyalty, he merely misuses the
word rational. When a creature has reached a cer-
tain stage of development it will cause the female
more pain to see her ofiFspring starve than to work
for it, and she then has a very rational reason for

; ;^^ Social Evolution

' \%,»tkjt\^ When humanity has reached a ccrtain
■Tatr »t \\ ill cause the individual more pain, a greater
•-rtivo i»l drin"J*dation and shame and misery, to steaL
t.i nuitdrr. or t*» he. than to work hard and snflFer
.ttM«Mnli*ti. When man has reached this stage he
li4-- A \rt V rational sanction for being truthful and
tu'urM It mif^ht also parenthetically be stated that
witru hr has imchctl this stag^e he has a tendency to
trhrvr the Mitfcrmnfs of others, and he has for this
*.'ni\r \hr rxirllriit rational sanction that it makes
hitn itu'ir i:no«nfi>rtablc to see misery unrelieved
th.m It .likTs to «lcny himself a little in order to re-
lirvr it.

However, we can cordially agree with Mr. KidJ's
l>ro|N>Kitic)n that many of the social plans advanced
Iiv woiiIiMk? reformers in the interest of oppressed
iiulivifluals arc entirely destnictive of all growth
atnl <»f all projrress in society. Certain cults, not
only diristian, but also Buddhistic and Brahminic,
tiMul to cltvelop an altruism which is as "supra-nat-
iiral" as Mr. Kidd seemingly desires religion to be:
for it really is without foundation in reason, and
therefore to l)e condemned.

Mr. Kidd repeats again and again that the sci-
entific development of the nineteenth century con-
fronts us with the fact that the interests of the sodal
organism and of the individual are, and must remain,
antagonistic, and the latter predominant, and that
there can never be found any sanction in individual
reason for individual good conduct in societies where
the conditions of progress prevail. From what has

Social Evolution 331

been said above it is evident that this statement is
entirely without basis, and therefore that the whole
scheme of mystic and highly irrational philosophy
which he founds upon it at once falls to the ground.
There is no such necessary antagonism as that which
he alleges. On the contrary, in the most truly
progressive societies, even now, for the great mass
of the individuals composing them the interests of
the social organism and of the individual are largely
identical instead of antagonistic; and even where
this is not true, there is a sanction of individual
reason, if we use the word reason properly, for con-
duct on the part of the individual which is subordi-
nate to the welfare of the general society.

We can measure the truth of his statements by
applying them, not to great societies in the abstract,
but to small social organisms in the concrete. Take
for instance the life of a regiment or the organiza-
tion of a police department or fire department. The
first duty of a regiment is to fight, and fighting
means the death and disabling of a large proportion
of the men in the regiment. The case against the
identity of interests between the individual and the
organism, as put by Mr. Kidd, would be far strong-
.er in a regiment than in any ordinary civilized
society of the day. Yet as a matter of fact we know
that in the great multitude of regiments there is
much more subordination of the individual to the
organism than is the case in any civilized State
taken as a whole. Moreover, this subordination is
greatest in precisely those regiments where the aver-

jja 3ndai EvoiudoK

af^ inrtivtritui is best off, becaiwe it is gzestfESit in
thoM negimcnts where the individual teela that high,
.^em pride in his own endnruice and su£Eeiuq^
atwt in the gnat name oi the oi^aniam of wfaick
he forms a part, diat in itself yieida one of the
loftiest of all baman pieaaiirea. If Mr. EGdd mesms
anything when he sossfs that diere i& no rarinnal
sanction tor progress he mu^ also mean tiiat there
is no rational sanction for a soldier not tlfnrtiiwy
from the enemy when he can do io unobserved, for
a sentinel not leaving his post, for an officer not
deserting to the enemy. Yet when he says this be
utter<i what is a mere jugglery on words. In die
prrjcc^<i> of evolution men and societies have often
re^chtd such a stage that the best type of soldier or
citizen feels infinitely more shame and misery from
neglect of duty, from cowardice or dishones^,, from
.selfish aliamlonment of the interests of the organism
of which he is part, than can be offset by the gratifi-
cation of any of his desires. This, be it also ob-
serve/1, often takes place, entirdy independent of
any religious considerations. The habit of useful
.self-sacrifice may be developed by civilization in a
gff^at vicicty as well as by military training in
a regiment. The habit of useless self-sacrifice
may also, unfortunately, be developed; and those
who irractice it are but one degree less noxious
than flic individuals who sacrifice good peopk to

riic rcligirms element in our development is that
on which Mr. Kidd most strongly dwells, entitling

Social Evolution 333

it "the central feature of human history." A very
starthng feature of his treatment is that in religious
matters he seemingly sets no value on the difference
between truth and falsehood, for he groups all re-
ligions together. In a would-be teacher of ethics
such an attitude warrants severe rebuke; for it is
essentially dishonest and immoral. Throughout
his book he treats all religious beliefs from the
same standpoint, as if they. were all substantially
similar and substantially of the same value; where-
as it is, of course, a mere truism to say that most
of them are mutually destructive. Not only has he
no idea of differentiating the true from the false,
but he seems not to understand that the truth of
a particular belief is of any moment. Thus he says,
in speaking of the future survival of religious be-
liefs in general, that the most notable result of the
scientific revolution begun by Darwin must be "to
establish them on a foundation as broad, deep, and
lasting as any the theologians ever dreamed of.''
If this sentence means anything it means that all
these religious beliefs will be established on the same
foundation. It hardly seems necessary to point out
that this can not be the fact. If the God of the
Christians be in very truth the one God, and if the
belief in Him be established, as Christians believe
it will, then the foundation for the religious belief
in Mumbo Jumbo can be neither broad, deep, nor
lasting. In the same way the beliefs in Mohammed
and Buddha are mutually exclusive, and the various
forms of ancestor worship and fetichism can not all

j}4 Social EvdntkiB

Ut <stp!»h«ibed cm a permaDQil basisw as "dsej woaSd

.\fmitL whcs Mn Kidd rdiokes frifrrr icr its
iflihtrr u« afiprcismb rdigiciD in a VTfnrifr spirit he
^.m c thai he iail» to grasp the foil beaiizig of the
mibjcct which he is cximidcriiig. This iaihne comes
m fan frocn the TC17 large, xxit to saj loose, waj
in «h»ch he uia the words "sdeoce^' aixi '^religioa.'*
HiCTT are many sciences and many religioDS, aiid
tbrre art many different kinds of men who pro^ss
t!^ '-nf or advccalc the other. \\Tierc the intolerant
)'r.,/iefy>r$. oi a given religious belief endearor by
any i^rm of jjerscculion to prrv^ent scientific men
of any kind from seeking to find out and fstaWish
Ibe truth, then it is quite idle to blame these scientific
men for attacking with heat and acerbity the relig-
K/ii^ l«]ief which prompts such persecution. The
e:i(igencies of a life and death struggle unfit a man
for the coldness of a mere scientific inquiry. Even
the moit enthusiastic naturalist, if attacked by a
man-eating shark, would be much more interested
in evading or repelling the attack than in determin-
ing the precise specific relations of the shark. A
\chn important but amusing feature of his argument
is that he ^)eaks as if he himself had made an
entirely new discovery when he learned of the im-
portant part played in man's history by his religious
Ixrlicfs. But Mr. Kidd surely can not mean this.
I le must be aware that all the great historians have
given their full importance to such religious move-
ments as the birth and growth of Christianity, the

Social Evolution 33 s

Reformation, the growth of Islamism, and the like.
Mr. Kidd is quite right in insisting upon the im-
portance of the part played by religious beliefs, but
he has fallen into a vast error if he fails to under-
stand that the great majority of the historical and
sociological writers have given proper weight to
this importance.

Mr. Kidd's greatest failing is his tendency to use
words in false senses. He uses "reason" in the false
sense "selfish." He then, in a spirit of mental tau-
tology, assumes that reason must be necessarily
purely selfish and brutal. He assumes that the man
who risks his life to save a friend, the woman who
watches over a sick child, and the soldier who dies
at his post, are unreasonable, and that the more their
reason is developed the less likely they will be to
act in these ways. The mere statement of the asser-
tion in such a form is sufficient to show its nonsense
to any one who will take the pains to think whether
the people who ordinarily perform such feats of
self-sacrifice and self-denial are people of brutish
minds or of fair intelligence.

If none of the ethical qualities are developed at
the same time with a man's reason, then he may
become a peculiarly noxious kind of wild beast; but
this is not in the least a necessity of the develop-
ment of his reason. It would be just as wise to say
that it was a necessity of the development of his bod-
ily strength. Undoubtedly the man with reason
who is selfish and unscrupulous will, because of his
added power, behave even worse than the man with-

}jif^ Social EvolotioB

.M«t tfs-4cnn w)v> i(i selfish and unscnipaloiB; bat tfae
j^n»f» »« tnie of the man of va«t bodily streogth. Hit
hn* power to r|o ^eater harm to himseif aod to
Inhere : htit. fierau^ of this, to speak of bodity
M'-e'Hrth *»r «^f reason an in itsdf ''profoundly anti-
!aori«l and anti-rv-olulionary'' is footishneas. Mr.
Ki'M ,i« sn often, i^ misled hy a confusion of names
for which he is himself responsible. The growth
(»f rationnltcfp. itn;«crampanied by any giowth in
oth»r< or nmr.dity. works badly. The society in
wliirh <\Kh ^ ^owth takes place will die out, and
• M^tjlM to«lie«Mit. But this does not imply that other
o^nmunitie^ qinte as inteili^sfent may not also be
defi>lY innral <m<l be able to take firm root in the
world.

Mr Kidd's rlefinitions of "supra-natural" and
' ldtr,^-rationa^' sanctions, the definitions upon whidi
l>c insist* so stronfjly and at such lei^^ wouM ap-
ply qnite as well to every crazy superstition of die
nK>st bnital savagfe as to the teachings of the New
Testament. The trouble with his argmnent is that,
wlicfi he insists upon the importance of this ultra-
rational sanction, defining it as loosely as he does,
he insists upon too mwh. He apparently denies
that men can come to a certain state at which it will
l>e rational for them to do right even to their own
hurt. It is perfectly possible to build up a civilizar
tion which, by its surroundings and by its inheri-
tances, working through long ages, shall make die
bulk of the men and women develc^ such character-
istics of unselfishness, as well as of wisdom, that it

Social Evolution 337

will be the rational thing for them as individuals to
act in accordance with the highest dictates of honor
and courage and morality. If the intellectual de-
velopment of such a civilized community goes on at
an equal pace with the ethical, it will persistently
war against the individuals in whom the spirit of
selfishness, which apparently Mr. Kidd considers
the only rational spirit, shows itself strongly. It will
weed out these individuals and forbid their prop-
agating, and therefore will steadily tend to produce
a society in which the rational sanction for progress
shall be identical in the individual and the State.
This ideal has never yet been reached, but long steps
have been taken toward reaching it; and in most
progressive civilizations it is reached to the extent
that the sanction for progfress is the same not only
for the State but for each one of the bulk of the in-
dividuals composing it. When this ceases to be the
case progress itself will generally cease and the com-
mimity ultimately disappear.

Mr. Kidd, having treated of religion in a pre-
liminary way, and with much mystic vagueness, then
attempts to describe the functions of religious belief
in the evolution of society. He has already given
definitions of religion quoted from different authors,
and he now proceeds to give his own definition. But
first he again insists upon his favorite theory, that
there can be no rational basis for individual good
conduct in society, using the word rational, accord-
ing to his usual habit, as a S3monym of selfish ; and
then asserts that there can be no such thing as a
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33^ Social Evolution

rational religion. Apparently all that Mr. Kidd
demands on this point is that it shall be what he calls
ultra-rational a word which he prefers to irrationaL
In other words, he casts aside as irrelevant all dis-
cussion as to a creed's truth.

Mr. Kidd then defines religion as being "a form
of belief providing an ultra-rational sanction for
that large class of conduct in the individual where
his interests and the interests of the social organism
are antagonistic, and by which the former are ren-
dered subordinate to the latter in the general interest
of the evolution which the race is undergoing," and
says that we have here the principle at the base of all
religions. Of course this is simply not true. All
those religions which busy themselves exclusively
with the future life, and which even Mr. Kidd could
hardly deny to be religions, do not have this prin-
ciple at their base at all. They have nothing to do
with the general interests of the evolution which the
race is luidergoing on this earth. They have to do
only with the soul of the individual in the future
life. They are not concerned with this world,
they are concerned with the world to come. All
religions, and all forms of religions, in which the
principle of asceticism receives any marked de-
velopment are positively antagonistic to the devel-
opment of the social organism. They are against
its interests. They do not tend in the least to sub-
ordinate the interests of the individual to the inter-
ests of the organism "in the general interest of the
evolution which the race is undergoing/* A religion

Social Evolution 339

like that of the Shakers means the almost immediate
extinction of the organism in which it develops.
Such a religion distinctly subordinates the interests
of the organism to the interests of the individual.
The same is equally true of many of the more ascetic
developments of Christianity and Islam. There is
strong probability that there was a Celtic popula-
tion in Iceland before the arrival of the Norsemen,
but these Celts belonged to the Culdee sect of Chris-
tians. They were anchorites, and professed a creed
which completely subordinated the development of
the race on this earth to the well-being of the in-
dividual in the next. In consequence they died out
and left no successors. There are creeds, such as
most of the present day creeds of Christianity, both
Protestant and Catholic, which do very noble work
for the race because they teach its individuals to
subordinate their own interests to the interests of
mankind ; but it is idle to say this of every form of
religious belief.

It is equally idle to pretend that this principle,
which Mr. Kidd says lies at the base of all religions,
does not also lie at the base of many forms of
ethical belief which could hardly be called religious.
His definition of religion could just as appropriately
be used to define some forms of altruism or human-
itarianism, while it does not define religion at all,
if we use the word religion in the way in which it
generally is used. If Mr. Kidd should write a book
about horses, and should define a horse as a striped
equine animal found wild in South Africa, his defini-

j4^ Social Evolutdun

TAm vnnld ipply tn certain mgmher^ o£ tine firarsc
^nily. but would not apply to that aniinal w&iidt
we ordinarily mean when we talk of a horse; azxd^
moreover, it woulit .^till be sulfiooitLy loose to m-
dude nvo or three entirely •iisdnct sgeass^ Ths
is predaeiy the trouble with Mr. Kit6fs d efiiiitiija
of religion. Et floes not dJefine religion at aH 3& the
wonl is orrlinarily as«i, and while it does apply txy
certain religic:us beliefs, it also applies quite as well
to certain m^n-religiijus beiiea We must , there-
core, reccilein: diat ±roughout Mr: Kirfrf's argament
en beiialf r-i: tiie part diat religion plays he does not
mean what is generally understood by reiigton. bat
the special form or forms wfaidi he heng defines^

Undoubtedly, in die race for life diat group of
beings will tend ulrimatdy to survive m which: the
general feeling of die members, whetiier due to
fi nrnaTTira nanis m^ to altroism, or to 5ome form o-f
religious belief proper, is such that the average m-
dividual has an tmsdjSsh: — ^what ilr. Kidd woold
call an tdtra-ratLonal — tendency to work for &e
tdtimate benefit of the community as a whole, itr.
Kidd' 3 argmnent is 50 loose that it may be constnicd
as meaning tiiac in the evolution of society, nra-
tional superstitions grow up from time to time,
affect large bodies of the human race in their course
of development^ and then di^ away: and that tihis
succession of evanescent religious bdiefe will coo-
tinue for a very long time to come, perhaps as long
as the human race exists. He may farther mean
that, except for tins belief in a long soccessioD of

Social Evolution 341

lies, humanity could not go forward. His words,
I repeat, are sufficiently involved to make it pos-
sible that he means this, but, if so, his book can
hardly be taken as a satisfactory defence of re-
ligion.

If there is justification for any given religion,
and justification for the acceptance of supernatural
authority as regards this reUgion, then there can
be no justification for the acceptance of all religions,
good and bad alike. There can, at the outside, be
a justification for but one or two. Mr. Kidd's group-
ing of all religions together is offensive to every
earnest beUever. Moreover, in his anxiety to in-
sist only on the irrational side of religion, he natural-
ly tends to exalt precisely those forms of superstition
which are most repugnant to reasoning beings with
moral instincts, and which are most heartily con-
demned by believers in the loftiest religions. He
apparently condemns Lecky for what Lecky says
of that species of unpleasant and noxious anchorite
best typified by St. Simeon Stylites and the other
pillar hermits. He corrects Lecky for his estimate
of this ideal of the fourth century, and says that
instead of being condemned it should be praised, as
affording striking evidence and example of the vigor
of the immature social forces at work. This is
not true. The type of anchorite of which Mr. Lecky
speaks with such just condemnation flourished most
rankly in Christian Africa and Asia Minor, the very
countries where Christianity was so speedily over-
thrown by Islam. It was not an example of the

34^ Social Evolution

vigor of the immature social forces at work; on the
contrar}', it was a proof that those social forces were
rotten and had lost their vigor. Where an anchorite
of the type Lecky describes, and Mr. Kidd impliedly
commends, was accepted as the true type of the
church, and set the tone for religious thought, the
church was corrupt, and was unable to make any
effective defence against the scarcely baser form of
superstition which received its development in Is-
lamism. As a matter of fact, asceticism of this kind
had very little in common with the really vigorous
and growing part of European Christianity, even
at that time. Such asceticism is far more close-
ly related to the practices of some loathsome
Mohammedan dervish than to any creed which has
properly developed from the pure and lofty teachings
of the Four Gospels. St. Simeon Stylites is more
nearly kin to a Hindoo fakir than to Phillips Brooks
or Archbishop Ireland.

Mr. Kidd deserves praise for insisting as he does
upon the great importance of the development of
humanitarian feelings and of the ethical element in
humanity during the past few centuries, when com-
pared with the mere material development. He is,
of course, entirely right in laying the utmost stress
upon the enormous part taken by Christianity in
the growth of Western civilization. He would do
well to remember, however, that there are other ele-
ments than that of merely ceremonial Christianity
at work, and that such ceremonial Christianity in
other races produces quite different results, as he

Social Evolution 343

will see at a glance, if he will recall that Abyssinia
and Hayti are Christian countries.

In short, whatever Mr. Kidd says in reference to
religion must be understood as being strictly limited
by his own improper terminology. If we should
accept the words religion and religious belief in their
ordinary meaning, and should then accept as true
what he states, we should apparently have to con-
clude that progress depended largely upon the fervor
of the religious spirit, without regard to whether the
religion itself was false or true. If such were the
fact, progress would be most rapid in a country like
Morocco, where the religious spirit is very strong
indeed, far stronger than in any enlightened Chris-
tian country, but where, in reality, the religious de-
velopment has largely crushed out the ethical and
moral development, so that the country has gone
steadily backward. A little philosophic study
woiild convince Mr. Kidd that while the ethical and
moral development of a nation may, in the case of
certain religions, be based on those religions and de-
velop with them and on the lines laid down by them,
yet that in other countries where they develop at
all they have to develop right in the teeth of the
dominant religious beliefs, while in yet others they
may develop entirely independent of them. If he
doubts this let him examine the condition of the
Soudan under the Mahdi, where what he calls the
ultra-rational and supra-natural sanctions were ac-
cepted without question, and governed the lives of
the people to the exclusion alike of reason and mo-

344 Social Evolutioo

rality. He will hardly assert that the Sotidan is
mt^re progressive than say Scotland or Minnesota,
where there is less of the spirit which he calls relig-
ious and which old-fashioned folk would call su-
perstitious.

Mr. Kidd*s position in reference to the central
feature of his argument is radically false; but he
handles some of his other themes very well. He
shows clearly in his excellent chapter on modem so-
cialism that a state of retrogression must ensue if
all incentives to strife and competition are with-
drawn. He does not show quite as clearly as he
should that over-ccMnpetition and too severe stress
make the race deteriorate instead of improving ; but
he does show that there must be some competition,
that there must be some strife. He makes it clear
also that the true function of the State, as it inter-
feres in social life, should be to make the chances of
competition more even, not to abolish them. We
wish the best men ; and though we pity the man that
falls or lags behind in the race, we do not on that
account crown him with the victor's wreath. We
insist that the race shall be run on fairer terms than
before because we remove all handicaps. We thus
tend to make it more than ever a test of the real
merits of the victor, and this means that the victor
must strive heart and soul for success. Mr. Kidd's
attitude in describing socialism is excellent He
sympathizes with the wrongs which the socialistic
reformer seeks to redress, but he insists that these
wrongs must not be redressed, as the socialists

Social Evolution 345

would have them, at the cost of the welfare of
mankind.

Mr. Kidd also sees that the movement for political
equality has nearly come to an end, for its purpose
has been nearly achieved. To it must now succeed
a movement to bring all people into the rivalry of
life on equal conditions of social opportunity. This
is a very important point, and he deserves the ut-
most credit for bringing it out. It is the great cen-
tral feature in the development of our time, and
Mr. Kidd has seen it so clearly and presented it so
forcibly that we can not but regret that he should
be so befogged in other portions of his argument.

Mr. Kidd has our cordial S3rmpathy when he lays
stress on the fact that our evolution can not be called
primarily intellectual. Of course there must be an
intellectual evolution, too, and Mr. Kidd perhaps
fails in not making this sufficiently plain. A per-
fectly stupid race can never rise to a very high plane ;
the negro, for instance, has been kept down as much
by lack of intellectual development as by anjrthing
else; but the prime factor in the preservation of a
race is its power to attain a high degree of social
efficiency. Love of order, ability to fight well and
breed well, capacity to subordinate the interests of
the individual to the interests of the community,
these and similar rather humdrum qualities go to
make up the sum of social efficiency. The race that
has them is sure to overturn the race whose mem-
bers have brilliant intellects, but who are cold and
selfish and timid, who do not breed well or fight

34^ Social Evolution

well, and who are not capable of disinterested love
of the community. In other words, character is far
more important than intellect to the race as to the
individual. We need intellect, and there is no rea-
son why we should not have it together with char-
acter; but if we must choose between the two we
choose character without a moment's hesitation.

VIII
THE LAW OF CIVILIZATION AND DECAY*

FEW more melancholy books have been written
than Mr. Brooks Adams's "Law of Civilization
and Decay." It is a marvel of compressed statement.
In a volume of less than four hundred pages Mr.
Adams singles out some of the vital factors in the
growth and evolution of civilized life during the
last two thousand years; and so brilliant is his dis-
cussion of these factors as to give, though but a
glimpse, yet one of the most vivid glimpses ever
given, of some of the most important features in
the world-life of Christendom. Of some of the
features only; for a fundamentally defective point
in Mr. Adams's brilliant book is his failure to
present certain phases of the life of the nations, —
phases which are just as important as those which
he discusses with such vigorous ability. Further-
more, he disregards not a few facts which would
throw light on others, the weight of which he fully
recognizes. Both these shortcomings are very nat-
ural in a writer who possesses an entirely original
point of view, who is the first man to see clearly
certain things that to his predecessors have been
nebulous, and who writes with a fervent intensity of

* The Forum, January, 1897.

(347)

j^i Crrl!iziE5r:e 2Sm£ Decsj

i -ii-ir.ru:r Cjcrricrxii ti> ±ic dcfiajepcj of Efsccry:
ir.*^ rr.f$ Ifr. A'^ams 52.* OjCc XitmljT eciiogfti.
lie- jiat ^xiacr rriCi: •■'!xr br^ak ixrw ^mrrzxi, zsryfs hen

T?je -vx^ic U repiete *::h -/:-.-:.i M:i:>g, sni vitfa

nierr/'.ry <?t rrjir-.'<tU in :h« art o: prcscrrtrnf trsc Ttol
f^sivjr-t^ of a \'i'i\vx with a feTw cia^ter-sx.jkcs- The
'^tWjrf of the Crj^fies^ the o^jtlfne of the Krrgli^li
coTi^rjer^t of India, and the sfciort talc of the rise of
the Ho*i.5e of Roth5*:iiiM. arc rnasterpccces. Xawhcrc
tl^ Ls It po^^rWe to find in the same cotnpass any
''ie.crif.tion of the Crusades 5<> rizrjirjrj:rA in its appre-
cation of ibc motives behind them, so startling in
the vigor with which the chief actors, and the diief
events, are portrayed. Indeed, one is almost tempted
to say that it is in the description of the Crusades
tliat Mr. Adams is at his best. He is dealing with
a giant movement of humanity: and he grasps not
only the colossal outward manifestations, but also
the spirit itself, and, above all, the strange and sin-
ister changes which that spirit imderwent His
mere description of the Baronies set up by the Cru-
saders in the conquered Holy Land, with their loose
feudal government, brings them before the reader's
eyes as few volumes specially devoted to the sub-

Civilization and Decay J49

ject could. It is drfficaTt to write of a forties aiid
mate a pen-pictnre which will always stay in ittt
mind ; yet this is what Mr. Adams has done in deaK
ing with the grim reHgions castles, terribk in siae
and power, which were built by the Knights of the
Temple and the Hospital as bulwarks against Sara-
cen might. He is not only a scholar of much re-
search, but a student of art, who is so much more
than a mere student as to be thrilled and possessed
by what he studies. He shows, witli a beauty and
vigor of style not unbecoming his subject, how pro-
foundl}' the art of Europe was affected by the Cru-
sades. It is not every one who can write \^dtli equal
interest of sacred architecture and militar}'^ engineer-
ing, who can appreciate alike the niarv'els of Gothic
cathedrals and the frowning strength of feudal for-
tresses, and who furthermore can trace tl«ir inter-
relaticm.

The storj^ of the taking of Constantinople by the
Crusaders who followed the lead of the blind I>og«
Dandolo is told with an almost brutal ruthlessness
quite befitting the deed itself. Nowhere else in the
book is Mr. Adams happier in his insist^ce upon
the conflict between what he calls die economic and
the imaginative spirits. The incident sets well with
his favorite theory of the inevitable triumpli of the
economic over the imaginative man, as societies
grow centralized and tlie no less inevitable fossiUza-
tion and ruin of the body politic which this very tri*
imiph itself ultimately entails. The histoiy of the
English conquest of India is only less vividly told* ,

CrriEzaccn and

-=^7 be 'irsi^'rrrri ±at olc of Mr.
rs 3 ^!ii5 j.p.trrri^ i iLams j rfnsa? to
be rrrskri by tmcct:: :^-"u ■■sfi if >frH" . ^rr£i;' He sees
V^cs.Ti'zj' 5 j£!^:trnf St* as s. zr5cr'<trT, 3]3d. Ms essen-
tia, trrrfirsiiiiess ni Trany 3t "ie tesv iwyriitH' wfsere
iie 2i5 bee: 3ac*t asCTij irrncsci

iCr. Adams's booiE. bcwe^er. ^ 5h* xocre t!ian a
•nere =acrcsfcc -f bri!!fsnr fsiscccs. Ee faily sees
±at ±c Tilrac :f zhr:s Ires ir: ±cfr reisrfcir to odc
anctrer: arc fr::ci ±e fics ss be sees ±cni he dc-
cuc-s ! g:* ^ fr laTTS -STC :ncrc "^^ a Tbiacyrfidean
fncirer^rre 15 tc bis cwn biciTicial approva l or
disappr- vil of rie ie^eicpc:c:ii. The I:5e of laii'Zflas,
Bee anv ctrcr for:2i of life, rs bcr cue trzanffestatfi^c
of CEergy : ard ilr. Adarrs's cecfcetfh- gfaomy phi-
losopcj cf life niay be gathered frcm the fact that
he ptaces fear and greed as the two fonns of energy
which stand cotispic-ouslj predominaiit : fear in die
earlier, aiad greed in the later, stages of evofaitkxL
from barbarism to cfvilization. Chilizatioo itsdf
he regards merely as the history of tfie movcnMnt
from a condition of physical distribotion to one of
physical concentration. During the earlier stages
of this moven^nt the imaginative man — the man
who stands in fear of a priesthood — is. in his opin-
ion, the representative type, while with him. and al-
most equally typical, stand the soldier and the artist
As consolidation advances, the economic man — die
man of industry, trade, and capital — tends to sujh
plant the emotional and artistic types of manhood,
and finally himself develops along two lines, — "the

Civilization and Decay 351

usurer in his most formidable aspect, and the peas-
ant whose nervous system is best adapted to thrive
on scanty nutriment." These two very unattractive
types are, in his belief, the inevitable final products
of all civilization, as civilization has hitherto devel-
oped ; and when they have once been produced there
follows either a stationary period, during which the
whole body politic gradually ossifies and atrophies,
or else a period of utter disintegration.

This is not a pleasant theory; it is in many re-
spects an entirely false theory; but nevertheless
there is in it a very ugly element of truth. One
does not have to accept either all Mr. Adams's the-
ories or all his facts in order to recognize more than
one disagreeable resemblance between the world as
it is to-day, and the Roman world under the Em-
pire, or the Greek world under the successors of
Alexander. Where he errs is in his failure to ap-
preciate the fundamental differences which utterly
destroy any real parallelism between the two sets of
cases. Indeed, his zeal in championing his theories
leads him at times into positions which are seen at
a glance to be untenable.

Probably Mr. Adams's account of the English
Reformation, and of Henry VIII and his instru-
ments, is far nearer the truth than Froude's. But his
view of the evils upon which the reformers as a
whole waged war, and of the spirit which lay behind
the real leaders and spurred them on, is certainly
less accurate than the view given by Froude in his
'^Erasmus" and "Council of Trent" It can be

. ■'ill

. i'. :

l'.- -IC. . l—

- • ii '.»f nrrr.r. H:f

..i;c which passed

■ \ ": ci! saw what

liih. is especially

ire there :? be

.\ :!iore vividly the

^xat Pope Hilde-

/laii these:

. Nvas a ^•ast space

^•» which are still

^lioiis obeyed the

'jl; from the Em-

^ , Mil helpless."

V

i' . ^vii the relations

1; ic Fair with the

\ 'o Mr. Adams,

1 . '^^'y VIII, is the

|,l.:.r ,' '^^ conflict w4th

:::i.: '■'■ '^'*^ more repul-

Civilization and Decay 353

sive, though perhaps an abler, man than Henry. In
this he is probably quite right. His account of the
hounding down of Boniface, and the cruel destruc-
tion of the Templars, is as stirring as it is truthful ;
but he certainly pushes his theory to an altogether
impossible extreme when he states that the moneyeil
class, the bourgeoisie, was already the dominant
force in France. The heroes of Froissart still lay
in the future ; and for centuries to come the burgher
was to be outweighed by king, priest, and noWe.
The economic man, the man of trade and money,
was, at that time, in no sense dominant.

That there is grave reason for some of Mr.
Adams's melancholy forebodings, no serious stu-
dent of the times, no sociologist or reformer, and
no practical politician who is interested in more
than momentary success, will deny. A foolish op-
timist is only less noxious than an utter pessimist;
and the prerequisite for any efifort, whether hoi)eful
or hopeless, to better our conditions is an accurate
knowledge of what these conditions are. There is
no use in blinding ourselves to certain of the ten-
dencies and results of our high-pressure civilization.
Some very ominous facts have become more and
more apparent during the present century, in which
the social movement of the white race has gone
cm with such unexampled and ever-accelerating
rapidity. The rich have undoubtedly grown richer ;
and, while the most careful students are inclined to
answer with an emphatic negative the proposition
that the poor have grown poorer, it is nevertheless

354 Civilization and Decay

certain that there has been a large absolute, though
not relative increase of poverty, and that the very
prx^r tend to huddle in immense masses in the cities.
Even though these masses are, relatively to the rest
of the population, smaller than they formerly were,
they constitute a standing menace, not merely to
our prosperity, but to our existence. The improve-
ment in the means of communicaticMi, moreover,
has so far immensely increased the tendency of the
urban population to grow at the expense of the ru-
ral : and i^ilosophers have usually been inclined to
regard the ultimate safety of a nation as resting
upon its peasantry. The improvement in machinery,
the very perfection of scientific processes, cause
great, even though temporary, suffering to tmskilled
laborers. Moreover, there is a certain softness of
fibre in civilized nations which, if it were to prove
progressive, might mean the development of a cul-
tured and refined people quite unable to hold its
own in those conflicts through which alone any
great race can ultimately march to victory. There
is also a tendency to become fixed, and to lose flexi-
bility. Most ominous of all, there has become evi-
dent, during the last two generations, a very pro-
nounced tendency among the most highly civilized
races, and among the most highly civilized portions
of all races, to lose the power of multiplying and
even to decrease; so much so as to make the fears
of the disciples of Malthus a century ago seem
rather absurd to the dweller in France or New
England to-day.

Civilization and Decay 355

Mr. Adams does not believe that any individual
or group of individuals can influence the destiny
of a race for good or for evil. All of us admit
that it is very hard by individual effort thus to make
any alteration in destiny ; but we do not think it im-
possible; and Mr. Adams will have performed a
great service if he succeeds in fixing the eyes of the
men who ought to know thoroughly the problems
set us to solve, upon the essential features of these
problems. I do not think his diagnosis of the dis-
ease is in all respects accurate. I believe there is
an immense amount of healthy tissue as to the ex-
istence of which he is blind ; but there is disease, and
it is serious enough to warrant very careful exam-
ination.

However, Mr. Adams is certainly in error in
putting the immense importance he does upon the
question of the expansion or contraction of the cur-
rency. There is no doubt whatever that a nation
is profoundly affected by the character of its cur-
rency ; but there seems to be equally little doubt that
the currency is only one, and by no means the most
important, among a hundred causes which profound-
ly affect it. The United States has been on a gold
basis, and on a silver basis ; it has been on a paper
basis, and on a basis of what might be called the
scraps and odds and ends of the currencies of a dozen
other nations ; but it has kept on developing along
the same lines no matter what its currency has been.
If a change of currency were so enacted as to
amount to dishonesty, that is, to the repudiation of

356 Civilizadon and Decay

dcUs. it wouki be a vcnr bad tinng moraUj: or, if
a change took place in a manner tbat wookl tem-
porahly reduce the purchasing power of the wage-
earner, it would be a verv bad dung materially; hot
the ccrrent of the national life would not be wholly
diverted or arrested, it would merely be diecked,
e\'en by such a radical diange. The forces that most
profoundly shape the course of a nation's life lie for
deeper than the mere use of gold or of silver, the
mere question of the appreciation or depreciation of
one metal when compared with the other, or when
compared with commodities generally.

Mr. Adams unconsciously shows this in his first
and extremely interesting chapter on the Romans.
In one part of this chapter he seems to ascribe the
ruin of the Roman Empire to the contraction of the
currency, sajdng, "with contraction came that fall of
prices which first ruined, then enslaved, and finally
exterminated the native rural population of Italy."
This he attributes to the growth of the economic or
capitalistic spirit. As he puts it, "the stronger type
exterminated the weaker, the money-lender killed
out the husbandman, the soldiers ^'anished, and the
farms on which they once flourished were left deso-
late."

But, curiously enough, Mr. Adams himself shows
that all this really occurred during the two centtuies,
or thereabout, extending from the end of the sec-
onrl Punic war through the reign of the first of the
Roman emperors ; and this was a period of currency
expansion, not of currency contraction. Moreover,

Civilization and Decay 357

it was emphatically a period when the military and
not the economic type was supreme. The great
Romans of the first and second centuries before
Christ were soldiers, not merchants or usurers, and
they could only be said to possess the economic in-
stinct incidentally, in so far as it is possessed by every
man of the military type who seizes the goods ac-
cumulated by the man of the economic type. It was
during these centuries, when the military type \^^as
supreme, and when prices were rising, that the ruin,
the enslavement, and the extermination of the old
rural population of Italy began. It was during
these centuries that the husbandmen left the soil and
became the mob of Rome, clamoring for free bread
and the games of the amphitheatre. It was toward
the close of this period that the Roman army be-
came an army no longer of Roman citizens, but of
barbarians trained in the Roman manner; it was
toward the close of this period that celibacy became
so cr}4ng an evil as to invoke the x-ain action of the
l^slature, and that the Roman race lost the power
of self-perpetuation. What happened in the suc-
ceeding centuries, — ^the period of the contraction of
the currency and the rise of prices, — was merely the
completion of the ruin which had already been prac-
tically accomplished.

These facts seem to show clearly that the question
of the currency had really little or nothing to do with
the decay of the Roman fibre. This decay b^an
under one set of currency conditions, and continued
unchanged when these conditions became predsdy

35* Civilization and Decay

reversed. An infinitely more important cause, as
Mr. Adams himself shows, was the immense dam-
age done to the Italian husbandman by the importa-
tion of Asiatic and African slaves ; which was in all
probability the chief of the causes that conspired
to ruin him. He was forced into competition with
races of lower vitality; races tenacious of life, who
possessed a very low standard of living, and who
furnished to the great slave-owner his cheap labor.
Mr. Adams shows that the husbandman was affected,
not only by the importation of vast droves of slaves
to compete with him in Italy, but by the competition
with low-class labor in Egypt and elsewhere. These
very points, if developed with Mr. Adams's skill,
would have enabled him to show in a very striking
manner the radical contrast between the present po-
litical and social life of civilized States, and the polit-
ical and social life of Rome during what he calls the
capitalistic or closing period. At present, the min-
ute that the democracy becomes convinced that the
workman and the peasant are suffering from compe-
tition with cheap labor, whether this cheap labor
take the form of alien immigration, or of the impor-
tation of goods manufactured abroad by low-class
workingmen, or of commodities produced by con-
victs, it at once puts a stop to the competition. We
keep out the Chinese, very wisely; we have put an
end to the rivalry of convict contract labor with free
labor; we are able to protect ourselves, whenever
necessary, by heavy import duties, against the effect
of too cheap labor in any foreign country ; and, final-

Civilization and Decay 359

ly, in the Civil War, we utterly destroyed the system
of slavery, which really was threatening the life of
the free worldngman in a way in which it can not
possibly be threatened by any conceivable develop-
ment of the "capitalistic" spirit.

Mr. Adams possesses a very intimate knowledge
of finance, and there are many of his discussions on
this subject into which only an expert would be com-
petent to enter. Nevertheless, on certain financial
and economic questions, touching matters open to
discussion by the man of merely ordinary knowl-
edge, his terminology is decidedly vague. This is
especially true when he speaks of "the producer.'*
Now the producer, as portrayed by the Populist
stump orator or writer of political and economic
pamphlets, is a being with whom we became quite
intimate during the recent campaign; but we have
found it difficult to understand at all definitely who
this "producer'' actually is. According to one school
of Populistic thinkers the farmer is the producer;
but according to another and more radical school
this is not so, unless the farmer works with his
hands and not his head, this school limiting the ap-
plication of the term "producer" to the working-
man who does the immediate manual work of pro-
duction. On the other hand, those who speak with
scientific precision must necessarily class as producers
all men whose work results directly or indirectly in
production. Under this definition, inventors and
men who improve the method of transportation,
like railway presidents, and men who enable other

360 Civilization and Decay

producers to work, such as bankers who loan money
wisely, are all themselves to be classed as producers,
and often indeed as producers of the most effective
kind.

The great mass of the pc^mlation consists of pro-
ducers ; and in consequence the majority of the sales
by producers are sales to other producers. It re-
quires one set of producers to make a market for
any other set of producers ; and in consequence the
rise or fall of prices is a good or a bad thing for
different bodies of producers according to the differ-
ent circumstances of each case. Mr. Adams says
that the period from the middle of the twelfth to
the middle of the thirteenth centuries was an inter-
val of "almost imparalleled prosperity," which he
apparently ascribes to the expansion of the currency,
with which, he says, "went a rise in prices, all pro-
ducers grew rich, and for more than two genera-
tions the strain of competition was so relaxed that
the different classes of the population preyed upon
each other less savagely than they are wont to do in
less happy times." It is not exactly clear how a
rise in the prices both of what one producer sells
another, and of what he in return buys from that
other, can somehow make both of them rich, and re-
lax the strain of competition. Certainly in the pres-
ent century, competition has been just as severe in
times of high prices, and some of the periods of
greatest prosperity have coincided with the periods
of very low prices. There is reason to believe that
low prices are ultimately of great benefit to the wage-

Civilization and Decay 361

earners. A rise in prices generally injures them.
Moreover, in the century of which Mr. Adams
speaks, the real non-producers were the great terri-
torial feudal lords and the kings and clerg3rmen;
and these were then supreme. It was the period of
the ferocious Albigensian crusades. It is true that
it ushered in a rather worse period,— that of the
struggle between England and France, with its at-
tendant peasant wars and Jacqueries, and huge bands
of marauding free-companies. But the alteration
for the worse was due to a fresh outbreak of "imag-
inative" spirit; and the first period was full of re-
curring plagues and famines, besides the ordinary
unrest, murder, oppression, pillage, and general cor-
ruption. Mr. Adams says that the different classes
of the population during that happy time "preyed
upon each other less savagely** than at other times.
All that need be said in answer is that there is not
now a civilized commimity, under no matter what
stress of capitalistic competition, in which the differ-
ent classes prey upon one another with one-tenth the
savagery they then showed ; or in which famine and
disease, even leaving war out of accoimt, come any-
where near causing so much misery to poor people,
and above all to the wage-earners, or workingmen,
the under strata and base of the producing classes.

From many of the statements in Mr. Adams's
very interesting concluding chapter I should equally
differ; and yet this chapter is one which is not merely
interesting but soul-stirring, and it contains much
with which most of us would heartily agree.
16 Vol. I.

361 Civilization and Decay

Through the cold impartiality with which he strives
to work merely as a recorder of facts, there break
now and then flashes of pent-up wrath and veh«nent
scorn for all that is mean and petty in a purely ma-
terialistic purely capitalistic, civilization. With his
scorn of what is ignoble and base in our develop-
ment, his impatient contempt of the dei&ation of
the stock-market, the trading-counter, and the fac-
tory, all generous souls must agree. When we see
prominent men deprecating the assertion of national
honor because it "has a bad effect upon business,"
or because it "impairs the value of securities"; when
we see men seriously accepting Mr. Edward Atkin-
son's pleasant theory that patriotism is of no conse-
quence when compared with the price of cotton
sheeting or the capacity to undersell our competi-
tors in foreign markets, it is no wonder that a man
who has in him the stuff of ancestors who helped
to found our Government, and helped to brii^ it
safely through the Civil War, should think blackly
of the future. But Mr. Adams should remember
that there always have been men of this merely
huckstering type, or of other types not much higher.
It is not a nice thing that Mr. Eliot, the president
of one of the greatest educational institutions of the
land, should reflect discredit upon the educated men
of the coimtry by his attitude on the Venezuela af-
fair, carrying his desertion of American principles
so far as to find himself left in the lurch by the very
English statesmen whose cause he was champion-
ing; but Mr. Adams by turning to the "History" of

Civilization and Decay

the Administration of Madison, by his brother,
Henry Adams, would find that Mr, Eliot had plenty
of intellectual ancestors among the "blue lights"
Federalists of that day, Timothy Pickering showed
the same eager desire to stand by another country
to the hurt of his o^vn country^s honor, and Timothy
Pickering was a United States Senator whose con-
duct was far more resprehensible than that of any
private individual could be* We have advanced, not
retrograded, since 1812,

This applies also to what Mr, Adams says of the
fall of the soldier and the rise of the usurer. He
quite overstates his case in asserting that in Europe
the soldier has lost his importance since 1871, and
that the administration of society since then has
fallen into the hands of the "economic man," there-
by making a change "more radical than any that
happened at Rome or even at Byzantium/' In the
first place, a period of a quarter of a century is al-
together too short to admit of such a generalization.
In the next place, the facts do not support this par-
ticular generalization. The Germans are quite as
military in type as ever they were, and very much
more so than they were at any period during the two
centuries preceding Bismarck and Moltke* Nor is
it true to say that '*the ruler of the French people
has passed for the first time from the martial to the
moneyed type/' Louis XV and Louis Philippe can
hardly be held to belong to any recognized martial
type; and the reason of the comparative sinking of
the military man in France is due not in the least to

j6a. Clvriizsion sui Dcca^

"he -:se ir lis rguiiuiui c feilaw-^Dmiii yiusMi. bnt to
"he -T5e n iic )ther rmiitary man :ii GtmiMiy, Mr.
^.tiams iasy^x ittsst imce the iTOiituianaii rsi: Psns dK
^nkiicr las •nencicd tj iwk more md moreL tintil he
mereiy necKves us itrierB iiDrii nnanciesrs (^ which
rerm -vhen ised by Mr. Aihrnrs incitides ail bnsncss
ind -Yorkingnnn > with his -adary. v idiom beng- aL-
lowed OL roicc erer m ±e TiiestioTis which involve
ocacc ind war >row ±is :s oreciseiy die gostian
which die loictier las jccnpieii for rwo centnries
imcnz Zngiish-sneaking^ -ncss: ind it is mring^diese
-^er7 Tsnranes diar ±e Umpish-ypfaking race has
nrr,('uicsii ts Trr^tesr ici(tier=. iJiinbGrmigh and
WeilinOTr:n. yeison md Jon-agnr. C-ranr and Lee,
exactiv ill Mr. >aiamsr5 remiinon of die poation
intt^ which TcUiiGn lave 'iunk*': ind die Umted
Snares has 'ust eiecrei is Presictertt, as it so fre-
auentiv has icne hefcrs. a man who -jwes his place
in poiitics in lar^e part to his havm^^ done gallfflit
^ierj'.cs as a soldier, and who is in no aenae a tcpre*
gcntative of die moneyed type

.\^ain, Mr. Adams g^.oomily remarks rhat **pro-
ducer? ha'/e become rhe subjects ■:•£ the possessors
or hoarded wealni," and diat amcng- capitalists the
money-Ienderi form an aristocracy, while debtors
are helpless and the ^^-vants or the cretfitors. AH
this is really quite unworthy or i'lr. Adams, or of
any one above the intellectual level of Mr. Bryan,
Mr. Henry George, or i'Er. Bellamy. Any man who
has had the slig^est practical knowledge of l^islar-
tion, whether as Congressman or as State legislator.

Civilization and Decay 36s

knows that nowadays laws are passed much more
often with a view to benefiting the debtors than the
creditors ; always excepting that very large portion
of the creditor class which includes the wage-earners.
"Producers" — ^whoever they may be — are not the
subjects of "hoarded wealth," nor of any one nor
an3rthing else. Capital is not absolute; and it is
idle to compare the position of the capitalist nowa-
days with his position when his workmen were
slaves and the law-makers were his creatures. The
money-lender, by whom I suppose Mr. Adams means
the banker, is not an aristocrat as compared to other
capitalists, — ^at any rate in the United States. The
merchant, the manufacturer, the railroad man, stand
just as' the banker does ; and bankers vary among
themselves just as any other business men do. They
do not form a "class'' at all; any one who wishes to
can go into the business ; men fail and succeed in it
just as in other businesses. As for the debtors being
powerless, if Mr. Adams knows any persons who
have lent money in Kansas or similar States they
will speedily enlighten him on this subject^ and will
give him an exact idea of the extent to which the
debtor is the servant of the creditor. In those States
the creditor — and especially the Eastern mon^-
lender or "gold-bug" — ^is the man who has lost all
his money. Mr, Adams can readily find this out by
the simple endeavor to persuade some "money-
lender," or other "Wall Street shark" to go into the
business of lending money on Far-Western farm
property. The money-lender in the most civilized

366 Civilization and Decay

portions of the United States always loses if the
debtor is loser, or if the debtor is dishonest. Of
course there are "sharpers" among bankers, as there
are among producers. Moreover, the private, as dis-
tinguished from the corporate, debtor borrows for
comparatively short periods, so that he is practically
not at all affected by an appreciating currency; the
rise is much too small to count in the case of the
individual, though it may count in the long-term
bonds of a nation or corporation. The wage of the
workingman rises, while interest, which is the wage
of the capitalist, sinks.

Mr. Adams's study of the rise of the usurer in
India and the ruin of the martial races is very in-
teresting; but it has not the slightest bearing upon
anything which is now happening in Western civ-
ilization. The debtor, in America at least, is amply
able to take care of his own interests. Our experience
shows conclusively that the creditors only prosper
when the debtors prosper, and the danger lies less
in the accumulation of debts, than in their repudia-
tion. Among us the communities which repudiate
their debts, which inveigh loudest against their cred-
itors, and which offer the poorest field for the oper-
ations of the honest banker (whom they likewise
always call "money-lender"), are precisely those
which are least prosperous and least self-respecting.
There are, of course, individuals here and there who
are unable to cope with the money-lender, and even
sections of the country where this is true; but this
only means that a weak or thriftless man can be

Civilization and Decay 367

robbed by a sharp money-lender just as he can be
robbed by the sharp producer from whom he buys
or to whom he sells. There is, in certan points, a
very evident incompatibility of interest between the
farmer who wishes to sell his product at a high rate,
and the workingman who wishes to buy that product
at a low rate ; but the success of the capitalist, and es-
pecially of the banker, is conditioned upon the pros-
perity of both workingman and farmer.

When Mr. Adams speaks of the change in the
relations of women and men he touches on the
vital weakness of our present civilization. If we
are, in truth, tending toward a point where the race
will cease to be able to perpetuate itself, our civili-
sation is of course a failure. No quality in a race
atones for the failure to produce an abundance of
healthy children. The problem upon which Mr.
Adams here touches is the most serious of all prob-
lems, for it lies at the roof of, and indeed itself is,
national life. But it is hard to accept seriously Mr,
Adams's plea that "martial" men loved their wives
more than "economic" men do, and showed their
love by buying them. Of course the only reason
why a woman was bought in early times was be-
cause she was looked upon like any other chattel;
she was "loved" more than she is now only as a
negro was "loved" more by the negro-trader in
i860 than at present. The worship of women dur-
ing the Middle Ages was, in its practical effects,
worship of a very queer kind. The "economic man"
of the present day is beyond comparison gentler and

368 Civilization and Decay

more tender and more loving to women than the
"emotional man" of the Middle Ages.

Mr. Adams closes with some really fine para-
graphs, of which the general purport is, that the
advent of the capitalist and the economic man, and
especially the advent of the usurer, marks a condi-
tion of consolidation which means the b^inning of
utter decay, so that our society, as a result of this
accelerated movement away from emotionalism and
toward capitalism, is now in a condition like that
of the society of the later Roman Empire. He
forgets, however, that there are plenty of modem
States which have entirely escaped the general ac-
celerated movement of our time. Spain on the one
hand, and Russia on the other, though alike in noth-
ing else, are alike in being entirely outside the cur-
rent of modern capitalistic development Spain
never suffered from capitalists. She exterminated
the economic man in the interest of the emotional
and martial man. As a result she has stmk to a con-
dition just above that of Morocco — another State,
by the way, which still clings to the martial and
emotional type, and is entirely free from the vices
of capitalistic development, and from the presence of
the usurer, save as the usurer existed in the days of
Isaac of York. Soldiers and artists have sunk lower
in Spain than elsewhere, although they have had no
competition from the economic man. Russia is in
an entirely different position. Russia is eminently
emotional, and her capitalists are of the most ar-
chaic type; but it is difficult to say exactly what

Civilization and Decay 369

Russia has done for art, or in what respect her
soldiers are superior to other soldiers; and certainly
the life of the lower classes in Russia is on the
average far less happy than the life of the working-
man and farmer in any English-speaking country.
Evidently, as Spain and Russia show, national de-
cay, or non-development, may have little to do with
economic progress.

Mr. Adams has shown well that the progress
of civilization and centralizaton has depended
largely upon the growing mastery of the attack over
the defence ; but when he says that the martial type
necessarily decays as civilization progresses, he goes
beyond what he can prove. The economic man in
England, Holland, and the United States has for
several centuries proved a much better fighter than
the martial emotionalist of the Spanish countries.
It is Spain which is now decaying; not the nations
with capitalists. The causes which make Russia
formidable are connected with the extent of her
territory and her population, for she has certainly
failed so far to produce fighting men at all superior
to the fighting men of the economic civilizations. In
a pent-up territory she would rise less rapidly, and
fall more rapidly, than they would ; and her freedom
from centralization and capitalization would not
help her. Spain, which is wholly untouched by
modern economic growth, suffers far more than any
English-speaking country from maladies like those
of Rome in its decadence ; and Rome did not decay
from the same causes which affect modem America

i^o Civilization and Decay

or Europe; while Russia owes her immunity from
a few of the evils that affect the rest of us, to
causes unconnected with her backwardness in civili-
zation, and moreover has worse evils of her own to
contend with. The English-speaking man has so
far out-buDt, out-fought, and out-administered the
Russian; and he is as far as the poles away from
the Roman of the later Empire.

Moreover, instead of the mercenary or paid police
growing in relative strength, as Mr. Adams says,
it has everywhere shrunk during the last fifty years,
when compared with the mass of armed farmers and
wage-earners who make up a modem army. The
capitalist can no longer, as in ages past, count upon
the soldiers as being of his party ; he can only count
upon them when they are convinced that in fighting
his battle they are fighting their own; although
under modern industrial conditions this is generally
the case. Again, Mr. Adams is in error in his facts,
when he thinks that producers have prospered in
the silver-using, as compared with the gold-using,
countries. The wage-earner and small farmer of the
United States, or even of Europe, stand waist high
above their brothers in Mexico and the other com-
munities that use only silver. The prosperity of the
wage-earning class is more important to the State
than the prosperity of any other class in the com-
munity, for it numbers within its ranks two-thirds
of the people of the community. The fact that mod-
ern society rests upon the wage-earner, whereas an-
cient society rested upon the slave, is of such tran-

Civilization and Decay

scendent importance as to forbid any exact compari-
son between the two^ save by way of contrast.

While there is in modem times a decrease in emo-
tional religion, there is an immense increase in practi-
cal morality. There is a decrease of the martial type
found among savages and the people of the Middle
Ages, except as it still sitrvMves in the slums of great
cities ; but there remains a martial type infinitely more
efficient than any that preceded it. There are great
branches of industry which call forth in those that
follow them more hardihood, manliness, and cour-
age than any industry of ancient times. The im-
mense masses of men connected with the railroads
are continually called upon to exercise qualities of
mind and body such as in antiquity no trade and no
handicraft demanded There are, it is true, in-
fluences at work to shake the vitality, courage, and
manliness of the race; but there are other influences
which tell in exactly the opposite direction, and,
whatever may come in the future, hitherto the last
set of influences have been strongest. As yet, while
men are more gentle and more honest than before, it
can not be said that they are less brave ; and they are
certainly more efficient as fighters. If our popula-
tion decreases; if we lose the virile, manly qualities,
and sink into a nation of mere hucksters^ putting
gain over national honor, and subordinating every-
thing to mere ease of life ; then we shall indeed reach
a condition worse than that of the ancient civiliza-
tions in the years of their decay. But at present no
comparison could be less apt than that of Byzantium,

,-1 Civilization aiKl Decay

.'- i^',vnr in its !^t^ yean, with a great modem State
.'trr/v 'he throning millions who make yp the balk
'*f 'hr jjoptil^tion are -Arage-camers, who themsdves
'Irridr th#*ir o*vn de<itfnies: a State which is able in
timr of need to put into the field armies, composed
f^xrlnsivdy of its own citizens, more numerous than
any whirh the world ha<i ever tjeforc seen, and with
a ffTord f}f fighting in the immediate past with which
ih^rrr is nothing in the annal« of antiquity to com-

K1f1> or VOL17M8 OlfS

^

i